Exploring the Future of Sustainable and Human Tourism
Curated by Emma Taveri, the Destination section presents success stories and key-note speakers to reflect on current trends and imagine destinations as laboratories of innovation and co-creation for smarter, more creative, sustainable and inclusive tourism. The DMOs of Barcelona, Vienna, Berlin and Budapest will explore “DMOcracy”, highlighting strategies for human-centred tourism that promote civic participation and solutions to tackle over-tourism. Discussions on sustainable tourism will also involve Malaga and Lugano together with the Touring Club, while WWF Travel, the Italian Association of Africa Experts and the University of Bologna will focus on the future of vulnerable destinations for which “there is no planet B”.
Silvia Marrara from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Silvia Salis from CONI will explore how sport can serve as an international showcase for Made in Italy, while RCS Sport and The Data Appeal Company will analyse the impact on tourism of sporting events such as the Giro d’Italia. A session devoted to innovation will explore active and technological tourism, with examples from Alta Badia to Scotland. Creativity and the importance of Cultural and Creative Industries, which contribute 4.4% of global GDP (Io sono Cultura 2024 Report, Symbola Foundation), will be addressed in a discussion between culture and AI experts to attract new segments of travellers, in collaboration with the tourism authorities of Austria, Castilla-La Mancha and Poland.
New creative territorial marketing projects will be discussed with T3kne, which promotes films such as Avatar in Venice, La Sirenetta (The Little Mermaid) in Sardinia and Inside Out in Burano. Regarding accessible tourism, the German Tourist Board and the Principality of Asturias will explore the topic of inclusive destinations in collaboration with the Agency for Digital Italy. Smart villages will be explored as a model of innovation for remote areas, ranging from Italy to Dutch Fresia.
Tuscany will play a leading role, with initiatives in Florence in sustainable tourism, small villages that combine tradition and innovation, and cultural centres such as CasermArcheologica, Murate Idea Park and Manifattura Tabacchi. Experts from the DMOs of Florence, Bologna, Turin, Verona, Milan and Trentino will speak on destination management, with a focus on the experiences of Val di Fassa, Val di Sole and Paganella. AI in the digital systems of destinations and the digitalization of Tuscan tourism companies are the two focuses proposed by Fondazione Sistema Toscana. For the first topic, Fondazione Sistema Toscana will compare Marketing Managers of Trentino, Promo Friuli Venezia Giulia, Yes Milano and Tuscany with the FST team that manages Visittuscany.com, Tuscany’s digital tourism system while, for the second, representatives of the three Tuscan universities and Format Research will discuss the results of surveys and research commissioned by the regional institution.
This is just a brief summary of a programme packed with guests.
We look forward to seeing you in Florence on 27 and 28 November 2024.
