The many appeals of the last few hours have evidently worked (from the president of Federalberghi Bernabò Bocca to that of Confturismo Luca Patanè) to the prime minister in charge of Mario Draghi for the formation of a tourism ministry with an adequate portfolio.
The sector, which before the Covid crisis was worth over 13% of the Italian GDP, employs 15% of the workforce, contributes 44 billion to the Italian trade balance and records a value of production of 190 billion, has been massacred by the crisis of Covid.
Perhaps this is why it was decided to create a dedicated ministry that will be led by Massimo Garavaglia.
And the first to speak of a "right choice" is the one who in recent months as owner of the Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Tourism has tried to help, with measures and refreshments, the sector to cross the "desert" of the crisis.
That is the minister Dario Franceschini, who has been reconfirmed at the head of Culture and wishes his colleague Garavaglia a good job.
Culture and tourism were back together in the same ministry, the Mibact, at the end of 2019 under the guidance of Franceschini.
Previously the sector had been entrusted to Gian Marco Centinaio together with the Agricultural and Forestry Policies.
"It doesn't seem true to me - says the president of Federalberghi Bernabò Bocca with satisfaction - and it's really news to celebrate. Finally, after waiting for years, a dedicated tourism ministry! And above all a ministry with a portfolio, not a ministry that he cuts the ribbons at the inaugurations. A full-bodied ministry of contents. We were tired of being hosted here and there. Italy deserves a dedicated ministry, "says Bocca.
"Professor Mario Draghi was needed to resolve with determination and lucidity a question on which we had been struggling for decades without ever finding a solution" says the president of Confturismo Confcommercio Luca Patanè.
"If the good morning - adds Patanè - starts in the morning, a great season opens for tourism, exhausted by the current crisis, at least from an institutional point of view".
"Finally the dignity and importance it deserves is restored to tourism. The timing of the handover worries us a lot, however, because the serious crisis in the sector requires urgent solutions and cannot wait" says Pier Ezhaya, president of Astoi Confindustria Viaggi.
Fiavet Confcommercio also congratulates Garavaglia for "a ministry that the sector has been waiting for for years and which comes at the most difficult moment in the history of Italian tourism".
"The future of the sector - says the president of Assoturismo Confesercenti Vittorio Messina - depends precisely on the ability we will have to overcome the territorial fragmentation that has characterized its management up to now. The hope is that now the ministry will become operational in a short time, and not the delays in operations we have been used to in the past are repeated ".
The president of Federturismo Confindustria Marina Lalli is also enthusiastic: "We hope that this 'forcing' of wanting to reconstitute the tourism ministry, eliminated years ago with the referendum, is a sign of awareness that our sector has been crushed by the pandemic. ".
"For some time the sector has been asking for a separate ministry: tourism and thermalism drive a large portion of the economy and in a moment of crisis in which we find ourselves, the new prime minister Mario Draghi has shown great sensitivity" says Massimo Caputi president. of Confindustria Federterme.
Maria Carmela Colaiacovo, vice president of the Italian Confindustria Hotels Association, asks the new minister for a road map "to get out of the crisis and secure the companies in the sector which are also an important potential for the rebirth of the country".
The president of the Demoskopika Institute Raffaele Rio asks Garavaglia to convene "Regions and stakeholders immediately to launch a single and shared strategic document that transforms the resources, albeit not yet sufficient, present in Next Generation Italy into conscious planning and reform of the sector through a Connected Tourism to the financial ".
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