There is a female duo at the top of Italian tourism to guide the recovery of one of the driving sectors of the country's economy.
After the appointment of Daniela Santanchè to the ministry, Ivana Jelinic, a travel agent who "grew up on bread and tourism", arrives at Enit as managing director.
In fact Jelinic, born in 1994, of Croatian origins but in the Umbrian Panicale since early childhood, is a well-known professional in the sector in which he has now been working for 20 years: since 2018 president of Fiavet (Italian Federation of travel and tourism business association of Confcommercio), his voice has often been raised in defense of the category, especially in these last very tough years of the pandemic.
In an interview with ANSA, the CEO of Enit explains what his next steps will be to ensure that Italian tourism accelerates in its role as a driving force for the economy.
But the first question is linked to the emotions of these very first days.
Did you expect the nomination?
"The crystal ball didn't really suggest Enit to me - she jokes - , but working in this area for twenty years and following best practices, you run the risk of being identified as a person who can give herself and make herself available to the sector".
And she replies frankly and openly to those who have claimed that she is a "friend of the minister".
"Unfortunately no, we only met three times. But she - she explains - it was fun to discover that her nomination was enough to make her her best friend".
And she adds: "
In Italy they are always ready to hunt for suspects and, if they don't find anything, they invent.
In Italian industry I know almost everyone and in my previous role I dealt with five ministers, collaborating with all of them for the good of the system.
Someone forgets that when the colors changed I stayed and I never made a distinction".
The work that awaits him at Enit is hard and non-stop and Jelinic has already started without wasting a minute: "The first step is reorganization. Net of the mistakes of the past, which it is not up to me to judge, certainly a methodological approach different to corporate work and the incoming promotion activity allows to obtain results that were not so evident before.To make the valorisation of the Italian brand a real company that is of support to society and the economy.Accelerate the operations and unleashing the potential of the Peninsula also by resorting to new communication and promotional languages to bring the Italy brand and Italy to an increasingly high-performance level of hospitality. It is essential to apply a linear and harmonized strategy to hospitality".
The other decisive move according to Jelinic will be to involve more and more businesses, even the smallest ones, which so far have been less considered by the programmatic policies of tourism.
"When we talk about Sistema Italia - he points out - we are talking about a system that is still incomplete and that needs to be implemented and integrated, involving more and more people and operators in the sector to really become part of it".
According to the combative managing director, there are many concerns and things to change quickly: "I am primarily concerned with the business fabric, but also with the future of workers in the sector and operators and the quality of performance and the tourist offer. I am concerned with the businesses that have been hurt by two years of pandemic,
According to Jelinic, Italy's performance can only improve by going beyond its borders, "not only by exporting Italy and making it better known - he clarifies - but also by not hiding behind the extraordinary nature of the wonders that belong to it and leaving them to the course of events and choices tourism, but also learning to emulate competitors in planning skills, brand marketing, offer promotion".
Among the countries from which to take ideas or examples, the CEO of Enit thinks of Spain which is our main competitor and has started off with an advantage: "When in Italy there was not yet a structure with a ministry dedicated to the sector, Spain - he explains - it already operated with a programming and with institutions operating in unison. Croatia too has been able to grow rapidly by creating an efficient promotion and data collection system updated in real time".
