Skift Take
Emilia-Romagna can't be considered a success story yet, but its everyday efforts mirror the work of many lesser known destinations and the opportunities that digital media provides to define their offering and broaden their audience.
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Editor’s Note: Skift is publishing a series of interviews with CEOs of destination marketing organizations where we discuss the future of their organizations and the evolving strategies for attracting visitors. Read all the interviews as they come out here.
This continues our series of CEO interviews that began with online travel CEOs in Future of Travel Booking (now an e-book), and continued with hotel CEOs in the Future of the Guest Experience series (which is also an e-book).
Emilia-Romagna is a region of northern Italy and home to some of the country’s most iconic products including Ferrari cars, Ducati motorcycles, Parmigiano Reggiano cheese, and balsamic vinegar from Modena.
Among tourists, however, the region often takes a back seat to the country’s most well-known destinations including Rome, Florence, and the Amalfi Coast. Emilia-Romagna hosted just over 9 million visitors in 2013, of which 28 percent came from abroad, according to the Italian National Statistical Institute. Emilia-Romagna is the sixth most visited region in Italy.
In a country that's not known for its stellar tourism marketing efforts, the Emilia-Romagna Region Tourist Board is working hard to change this by raising awareness of its ancient history, culinary significance and warm culture through digital media. It runs contests, hands its Instagram account over to locals, and hosts as many bloggers and digital journalists as possible.
Still, tying the world-renowned products with the experiences available in the region is a balance that the tourism board works at daily.
Skift recently spoke with the organization's CEO Emanuele Burioni and his team about the region’s challenges to raising its profile, its successful formula for working with media, and how it plans to overcome a shrinking budget with partnerships.
Skift: Your destination has many attractions including the world’s oldest university, renaissance cities, and beach resorts. However, most travelers thinking about a trip to Italy focus on Naples, Rome, or Tuscany. How do you raise awareness of the region and get people to Emilia-Romag
