Assoprovider offers its solutions to boost tourism and criticizes the choice of a public portal to replace OTAs, “Hub, a portal included in the PNRR, would be another failure and a waste of public money like Italia.it,” explains Matteo Fici, Assoprovider
When Italia.it, the Italian public portal that aimed to replace private tourist portals, was launched in 2004, Assoprovider, the association of independent providers, immediately expressed its opposition to the initiative (here is the article that testifies to it https://bit.ly/3yRaiIo).
In hindsight, the portal, which has now existed for 16 years, has not produced the expected results: "Italia.it has accumulated a series of failures, documented by extensive press coverage, with an enormous waste of public resources. This experience has shown that it is not necessary to exploit the nationalistic spirit of the sector, which cyclically resurfaces, to create a public monster," explains Matteo Fici, Tourism Manager of Assoprovider and co-founder with Giusi Carioto of the Experiential Tourism platform, Tedtrip.
Man, however, seems not to learn from history, and today a similar experience risks emerging with the Hub project, another portal for national tourism that closely resembles Italia.it and was presented in Brussels as part of the PNRR, the National Recovery and Resilience Plan, with grants planned as per the scheme (in millions of euros..):
| Year | Investment |
| 2021 | 6 |
| 2022 | 24 |
| 2023 | 33 |
| 2024 | 27,1 |
| 2025 | 16,3 |
| 2026 | 7,1 |
What is the Tourism Hub included in the PNRR
In the Government's vision, the Hub will be a dedicated digital tourism web platform. The portal, which will be promoted by ENIT, is intended to be a tool supporting small and medium-sized tourism operators in the country's most underdeveloped areas. Additionally, a Digital Hub that aims to focus on two types of services, targeted at operators and tourists:
"Yet, these portals created by the public sector to establish and grow a highly competitive private market like that of booking tourism services have never worked, see the Italia.it project of 2004. The reason is simple to understand: the public sector lacks the entrepreneurial skills to launch and grow it," continues Matteo Fici.
Assoprovider's Recipes
The entrepreneur and member of the Assoprovider board explains that the solution is to promote the creation of private portals (and the growth of existing ones), developed by associations and new tourism operators, integrating them into the system and funding content development. Alongside this, it is necessary to train entrepreneurs and tourism personnel on new tourism trends and new digital tools to overcome the digital divide in the tourism sector, a battle in which Assoprovider, the association of Proximity Internet Providers, has always been at the forefront.
3 formulas for the revival of tourism
There are three proposals that Assoprovider, in collaboration with Tedtrip, are launching to address the crisis in Italian tourism and contribute to its revival:
- Targeted funding for the development of private booking platforms with a high conversion rate, increasingly integrated with the territories;
- Training of personnel engaged in the tourism sector, especially in the area of experiential tourism, a model that will represent the future of tourism;
- Non-repayable funding to encourage investments in tourism, promoted through Invitalia, to a wide audience of potential new players in the tourism sector, with no age limits.