I consider the choice of organising this event in Sicily more apt than ever. An extraordinary land, which in recent days has hosted the meeting of the G7 Agriculture Ministers and the Expo Divinazione. Syracuse was, for several days, the capital of our agrifood, fishing and aquaculture excellence, a showcase for a strategic sector for our economy that in terms of exports could touch a record 70 billion euro in 2024. What was needed was a place where land and sea were one, and the products of both represented priceless treasures. The Island of Ortigia embodied all this, and the success of the event must be a source of pride for everyone.
ITALIAN BEAUTY AND ATTRACTIVENESS
Italy is the homeland of beauty. It is the nation that, more than any other, expresses the very idea of beauty, in all its facets. The demand for Italy is ever increasing, and this drives us to work ever harder to enhance what makes us unique in the world and for which we are loved, appreciated and – if you will allow me – even a little envied. This vision has driven us to restore centrality to a strategic sector like tourism, which for too many years has been abandoned and considered second-class. The government has adopted a strategic plan, pursued a clear vision, and the results are tangible. Istat estimates for 2023 record the highest values ever observed in tourism surveys: over 134 million arrivals and 451 million presences in accommodation facilities in Italy. And the growth trend for 2024 bodes well.
CONCRETE ACTIONS FOR TOURISM
We have restored dignity to the workers in the sector, investing in their training and in enhancing their skills. The government has enacted reforms that had been awaited for years, such as the one to defend the all-Italian specificity of tourist guides or the regulations to combat abuse in non-hotel hospitality. We have used PNRR resources to upgrade the tourism offer, supporting access to credit and investment by small and medium-sized enterprises to improve hospitality.
THE CENTRALITY OF SMALL VILLAGES
We have paid special attention to our magnificent villages, small municipalities, inland and mountainous areas. Realities that guard our deepest identity, and which are capable of developing, if adequately supported, a peculiar and high-level tourist offer. Also in this vein, we intend to continue along the path to delocalise and deseasonalise the tourist offer, decentralising it physically and temporally so as to distribute the benefits over the different territories and at different times of the year.
BIG EVENTS TO AMAZE
In less than one hundred days the Jubilee will open and in 2026 the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics await us. The government is working to demonstrate how Italy is capable, once again, of organising and hosting global events.
BOOM FOR CULTURAL VENUES
The government has also marked a step change in the enhancement of historical and artistic heritage, both in terms of the number of visitors to our museums and the resulting economic return. This has produced important results, starting with the double record reached in 2023 in terms of visitors and takings in cultural sites. We have strengthened Italy’s supremacy in Unesco sites with the inscription of the Italian Opera House and the Appia Antica in the list of World Heritage Sites, and we are working to complete some major museum projects. I am thinking of the doubling of the Uffizi to enhance the heritage hitherto kept in storage, the opening of Palazzo Citterio in Milan to house the contemporary collections of the Pinacoteca di Brera, or the renovation and re-functioning of the former Albergo dei Poveri in Naples, as the expanded headquarters of the MANN and the National Library.
STRATEGY AND MEMBERSHIP
These are pieces of a broader strategy that the government is pursuing, and which has a threefold objective: to increase the sense of national belonging, to contribute to our economic development, and to build a widespread growth model capable of involving every corner of our nation. A strategy that, to borrow the title of this initiative, is rooted in the great wealth of Italy’s heritage and aims with its fronds at the most ambitious goal: Italy’s wellbeing and prosperity.
