It is called "Support Tourism", the initiative that our association is promoting to relaunch one of the sectors most affected by the Covid-19 emergency, namely tourism.

The connection between the more than 250 companies in the tourism sector and Assoprovider is historic: it is thanks to the work of our providers that some of the main online booking engines for Italian tourism were created.

A "connection" from which a branch of the association was born, focused on tourism, led by Matteo Fici, one of the founders of Assoprovider and member of the board of directors.

Just from Matteo Fici, with the participation of another of our advisors, Antonio Aprea, and of Giusi Carioto, an expert in experiential tourism, was born “Support Tourism” which involved approximately 80,000 tourism businesses, who were asked to draft a series of proposals to revitalize the supply chain.

21 proposals have emerged, some of which we discuss in this article (at the end of the article you will find the pdf to learn about all of them) and have already found space in national newspapers such as “"Affari Italiani” and vertical magazines on tourism such as” Travel Daily.

Relaunch of Tourism: Proposals for the First Phase

For the first phase, the tourism companies involved in the initiative have launched a package of concrete proposals: from the Emergency Fund (with an allocation of 7.5 billion), to zero-interest loans, to the extension of income support until December 2020, to the VAT at 10% for agencies, and the reduction of the flat tax to 10% for the short-term rental sector.

"As is well known, the Covid 19 emergency has brought tourism to its knees. Instead of giving up and waiting for proposals, we brought together around 80,000 tourism businesses across the Italian territory and launched a social media campaign, gathering proposals in a video viewed more than 70,000 times, which was sent to Italian and European Parliamentarians and the Italian Government," reveal Matteo Fici e Antonio Aprea, discussing the objectives and the initial results achieved by the initiative.

Tourism revival: proposals for the second phase

The involved tourism operators then discussed useful proposals for a second phase of relaunch.

In this, funding becomes crucial for the development of Italian and/or European booking platforms, investments in digital training for tourism sector personnel, funding for territorial marketing:

“The approach we have adopted is systemic, with interventions that act on multiple fronts: on 'people' and on social and environmental capital, through professional retraining towards new models of modern tourism such as experiential and eco-sustainable tourism, which will be more suited to the post-COVID-19 climate.", they conclude Matteo Fici and Antonio Aprea.

Want to know more about the initiative? Download the complete PDF with the objectives and proposals of “Support Tourism“.