Italy is the world's most desirable tourist destination yet investments in its strongest selling point - culture - are dwindling, the Federation of Cultural, Tourism and Sporting Associations has warned.
In its annual report, Federcultura pointed to international research showing that foreign tourists were far more drawn by Italy's art, history and culture than by its sun, sea and beaches.
In 2005, Italy topped the first-ever Country Brand Index, which identifies nations as brands, suggesting how they can attract more tourists. The survey showed that in order to keep first place, Italy should focus on culture in order to differentiate itself from other nations, as its wealth of archaeological and artistic treasures are what makes it so unique.
Federcultura Director Roberto Grossi agreed, stressing that investments were needed in order to boost the number of visitors to Italy's cultural sites. "Attractions like the (ancient Greek) Riace bronzes and the archaeological site of Paestum are not enough in themselves to ensure development," he said.
"Strategies, programs and high quality are needed".
He singled out a series of cities that saw increases in tourism last year: Rome up 13%, Modena up 18%, Venice up 10%, Ravenna up 8% and Naples up 2%.
All shared the ability "to create projects able to revive the city's image," said Grossi. "As well as promoting their artistic heritage, they organized important cultural events and entertainment." Research by Federcultura has shown that investments in culture "have high returns for the entire area, not only socially and culturally but also economically".
Rome's "White Night" event in September, in which many of the capital's museums, galleries, restaurants and cinemas remained open from dusk to dawn, is a perfect example, said Grossi. "City authorities invested just three million euros in
an event that generated 60 million euros for the capital," he said.
He also pointed to Valencia, which will stage the 2007 America's Cup sailing tournament. In the six months after it won bidding to host the event, it pulled double the number of visitors it usually does, reaching a record of five million. Yet despite this, Italian authorities are cutting back on investments in culture, rather than boosting them. "The 2006 budget saw a 10% reduction in funds to the culture ministry," the report said, mentioning this as part of a list of cuts to cultural and sporting bodies.
It compared the situation in Italy to that in other European countries.
Spain, for example, boosted its spending on culture last year by 9.6%, while France has earmarked a billion euros a year for the next three years, amounting to a 4% rise. Britain and Germany also upped spending by 2% last year. The report warns that the reductions in Italy will halt a great deal of artistic output, stall research and slow down modernization and new projects.
Nevertheless, Federcultura's picture was not entirely gloomy. Although spending at a national level is down, there is a growing focus on culture at a local level. Town and city councils are particularly active in this field, on average investing 3.5% of their overall spending on culture, compared to 0.31% of national expenditure and the European average of 0.5%.
