Dal Piano Strategico a una pianificazione turistica di accoglienza e gestione dei visitatori

Abstract

Tourism economic sector represents a new model for the development of the territory that is able to develop, directly or indirectly, those areas that have had times of economic downturn. The service sector has shown a good opportunity for regions to undertake a path out of economic crisis, especially where the local economy was based on models of industrial monoculture. The Piedmont Region, in the North-West of Italy, is one of the players of this kind of dynamics. This area, of ancient industrial tradition, has been the subject of a restructuring process since the eighties and nineties turnaround, thanks to a policy aimed by the decision makers who have decided to focus its resources on culture and tourism toward a change of image. These concepts are formalized in the First Strategic Plan of Turin in 2000 and in the Second Strategic Plan in 2006, after the Olympic Games. The Olympic event, underlines the history of the region by requiring authorities and politicians to work for the common goal that use the Olympics as a springboard to reshape the territory vocation. The reorganization of the area for tourism, the expansion of capacity, the valorisation of existing cultural and environmental heritage, communication policies aimed toward changing the image, not only the mobilization of resources but also the most obvious of hidden resources (Picchierri - Dondona, 2009) and strengthening the collective pride of the local community, have had the desired effect. Turin and Piedmont, unlike other sites that have hosted the Olympic Games in the past, have significantly increased their tourist flows. Since 2000, the Piedmont had important grows: from 2 million 532.000 arrivals in 2000 to 3 million and 476.000 in 2008. The legacy of tourism as a potential leading sector for the region was formalized with a Regional Planning. Among the measures identified as priorities for the regional tourism organization that related to the improvement of visitor hospitality and management was the subject of a research assessment carried out by SiTI – Higher Institute on Territorial Systems for Innovation – and DICAS, Department Casa Città of Turin Polytechnic. These subjects develop, on three case studies, an integrated methodology based on «visitor management» approach that focuses on the tourist experience and in particular on the three main fields of tourism management: hospitality, accessibility and information. In addition, the methodology of the visitor management also involves the use of innovative technologies for real and in-depth understanding of tourism phenomena.