13.1% of the national GDP, 15% of the workforce with its approximately 4 million employees, an economic value of 236 billion euros, an accommodation capacity of 33 thousand structures for over 2.23 million beds, 183 thousand non-hotel establishments, a balance in the tourist balance of payments of over 16.2 billion euros: these are some of the data that characterized the tourism sector in 2019. The forecasts of Enit for the years 2020/21 spoke of double-digit increases and instead … it was the pandemic that condemned to collapse a sector that represents one of the most significant and driving voices of the economy of our country but which this year recorded losses for about 97% of its turnover. business, equal to 3% of national GDP.
How to intervene to revive the tourism system? This was the question on which focused the web conference “Manager for tourism between tradition and innovation” organized by Federmanager on Wednesday 12 May to discuss the topic with the Minister for Tourism, Massimo Garavaglia. The proposal of the President of Federmanager, Stefano Cuzzilla, to immediately launch a “national control room” to coordinate and make the most of all the opportunities of a global tourism offer, in an articulated and integrated way, including the resources deriving from the National Plan of Recovery and Resilience, was totally shared by the Minister who underlined how this objective has found full correspondence in the creation of a new Ministry, that of Tourism, called to carry out, in a unified vision, all those activities that belong to the sector intended in its entirety of interests, initiatives, management of a supply chain that must be considered as the sum of territorial or local initiatives.
“The tourism sector is certainly suffering from the new crisis, but it is also paying for some traditional inefficiencies, the children of a mentality that has not been able to transform it into a real industry, identifiable in small companies, in poor infrastructures, in little innovation”. This condition, underlined by Cuzzilla and shared by the Minister, introduced the issue of the need to promote digital innovation that gives the sector an “industrial look” characterized by structured and competitive companies, capable of assuming a leadership position and attracting high-end tourism. quality. In this context, the importance that digital can have on the promotion of the system and on the tourist offer in our country was underlined with the creation, among the interventions envisaged for the sector by the Italian recovery plan, of the “Hub of digital tourism “, a dedicated web platform, which will allow the connection of the entire national tourism ecosystem to enhance, integrate and promote the offer of services.
The importance of the Conference organized by Federmanager, which allowed an opportunity for meetings and discussions between the representatives of industrial managers and the Minister of Tourism, finds its synthesis in the concluding remarks by Stefano Cuzzilla who underlined the need for “a managerial approach to the theme of tourism, which connects the aspects of mobility, transport, the enhancement of villages, small towns, the many beauties we have, thus favoring sustainable and resilient tourism, capable of investment choices , capable of transforming itself to be the strategic lever for the growth of the entire national economy ».
In pursuing this objective, the management will be fully committed to the companies that operate within the supply chain of activities headed by tourism, which has also declared itself available for an active collaboration of proposals and ideas that can be transferred to the Ministry of Tourism; Minister Garavaglia thanked for this availability, undertaking to pay careful attention to it in the spirit of a useful collaboration that can combine the needs of the sector with the contributions that can be given by the professionalism of those who work in the world of industrial production and infrastructures. Sergio Moschetti