“Extraordinary Calabria: the Future of Tourism” is the title of the event organized by the Calabria Region as an opportunity for interaction and collaboration between all the players in the tourism sector, a fundamental pillar of the economic and cultural development of the territory.
A day at the regional Citadel during which local operators, national and international players discussed in six thematic tables on various crucial topics for the development of tourism such as infrastructure, hospitality, food and wine, cultural heritage, villages, events, and the beauties of the sea, mountains and internal areas.
The initiative was attended by the general managers of the regional departments who presented the results of the work of each table designed to encourage constructive dialogue between operators and to stimulate the creation of new initiatives and solutions.
Followed by three panels with: Mauro BollaCountry manager Italy Ryanair e Alberto Yates, Director South EMEA Booking.com; Agostino Saccà, Ad Pepito productions, e Massimiliano Zane, cultural designer and consultant Ministry of Culture; Calabrian entrepreneursGiuseppina Amarelli, Filippo Callipo, Nuccio Caffo.
The initiative was moderated by the journalist Roberto Arditti.
In concluding the work, the President of the Region Roberto Occhiuto he spoke of a “new method for addressing tourism issues which must concern all departments of the Region and all administrative areas of the same”.
“To develop tourism – he remarked – it is necessary to invest in accommodation, but also to insert promotional initiatives into a strategic framework. We need to intervene on mobility to give tourists the opportunity to move, intervene on food and wine itineraries by linking them to religious tourism itineraries”.
Occhiuto also highlighted the significant resources that the Region has invested in this sector to increase tourist flows in the coming seasons.
“I believe – continued the President of the Region – that for infrastructures, in the last fifty years, no regional government has managed to obtain what this administration has obtained, that is: 3.5 billion for the main road 106 compared to 1 billion invested over all these decades. They are not enough. I know. To complete all the sections, another 10-15 billion are needed and I am committed to obtaining for Calabria all the possible resources for infrastructural development even if the other Regions complain that in the Anas program contract Calabria has been financed more than all others ”.
President Occhiuto also focused on the new air routes destined for Calabria and on the connections between the various airports.
“I am happy – he said – because thanks to these flights millions of tourists will arrive, but I am worried because I imagine that these tourists, when they arrive at the airports, will have problems moving to the various Calabrian destinations. On this matter, the government has challenged two regional laws useful for addressing this problem. But I don’t lose heart. We have appealed to the Constitutional Court on one of these laws and I hope it will agree with us. In general, however, more than half of the resources invested in infrastructure in Italy have been invested in Calabria. There is a lot to do – concluded Occhiuto -, but I believe that a lot has been done by this regional administration compared to the past”.