Title – Name
Tuscany Tourism Promotion Agency
Scope / Sector / Industry
Tourism promotion and wine tourism
Country / Region
Italy, Tuscany
Why is it good practice?
The Tuscany Tourism Promotion Agency (TTPA), is a good example of a destination management organization, as through collective planning processes, it tries to prepare a marketing plan for the region of Tuscany that covers the real needs of each region. At the same time, with targeted initiatives and actions, it seeks to promote wine tourism and local gastronomy and to create a strong brand with international recognition.
How is it applied?
The TTPA was founded in 2016 and its mission is the planning and promotion of Tuscany and its local tourist products. Through its participation in trade fairs and events, in B2B workshops and fam-trips, as well as in synergy and coherence with the activities of other local bodies responsible for the implementation of communication activities, it brings the tourism products of Tuscany directly or indirectly to the final consumer-traveller. In collaboration with the Fondazione Sistema Toscana (NGO founded by the Region of Tuscany to create and manage the online portal of Tuscany and promote the regional territory), and in alignment with regional strategies, it carries out promotional activity, designed to narrate the history of Tuscany. In this way, it supports and strengthens the tourism of Tuscany, its regions and local businesses.
In the context of the strategic promotion of Tuscany, the TTPA annually prepares an operational program with the aim of defining the promotional actions, according to the needs of the region’s local communities. To achieve the design of a strategy that fulfills these needs, it created a digital tool that pursues a bottom up approach and contributes to the participatory design of the annual operational program. This method was named “Tuscany Together” and is essentially a digital platform that simplifies planning processes, encouraging cooperation between the different levels of government in a practical and functional way, to define a marketing strategy for Tuscany. As part of this well-structured process, each local government body identifies, develops and measures its initiatives in a common way, based on clearly defined objectives. More specifically:
a) Before defining an initiative, it is necessary for each body to make preliminary estimates, such as defining specific strategic options, the target markets and tourism products of their area, as well as analyzing critical issues that must be overcome, in order to define the intended results.
b) Each initiative must have a clear objective and refer to one of the 5 predetermined competitiveness factors: a) Attractiveness, b) Access to destinations, c) Hospitality, d) Brand, e) Offer. For simplicity, the platform divides interventions into two major areas: Destination Management (Attractiveness, Destination Access, Hospitality) and Destination Promotion (Branding, Promotion).
c) Every initiative must be measurable, i.e. when defining an action it is necessary to define how to measure investments, results and real impacts (eg how the intervention actually improved reception, attractiveness, etc.).
With the above guidelines, local operational plans are created, through an organized and efficient process, capable of creating destination promotional actions. This tool helps TTPA to design an annual strategy based on the needs of each local community, avoiding overlaps and promoting synergies and the dialogue with tourism trade associations and agencies through public consultations.
Based on the above process in 2023, the local areas sent their plans in order the TTPA’s annual business plan for 2024 to be designed. From these plans, a temporary list of 57 tourism products was created. Starting from those that present a high degree of shared use by the regions and taking into account the evolutionary dynamics of the market and the main tourism trends, the TTPA proceeded to group the tourism products as follows: a) Active Tourism (includes sports activities), b) Tourism Art and Culture, c) Holiday Tourism, d) Business Tourism, e) Luxury Tourism, f) Thermal Health Tourism, g) Religious Tourism, h) Slow Tourism and i) Educational Tourism. The above products were TTPA’s priorities for the 2024 marketing plan.
Wine tourism and wine routes, as a tourism product, were included in the promotion category of Slow Tourism activities, which includes olive tourism, gastronomy tourism, holidays for psychosomatic well-being, agrotourism, ecotourism, etc. According to the local plans submitted to the digital platform, the regions of Tuscany proposed for wine routes in the plan are 17. Today, the official Tuscany promotion website proposes 38 wine routes, for which suggestions for accommodation, food, attractions, events and experiences are given and also relevant maps and additional information for travelers. Some of these routes are promoted for cycling and others for walking.
In the strategic plan of TTPA, for the promotion of wine tourism, emphasis has been given on the promotion of the “Vetrina Toscana” (The Showcase of Tuscany) initiative. This initiative seeks to be not only a means of communication for companies, travelers and experiences, but also a tool to showcase the complexity of the region through gastronomy. For this reason the initiative is not limited to the promotion of a product, but provides further information about restaurants and shops and promotes local producers who operate based on sustainability values and share a passion for food and their region.
The goal for 2024 plan is the promotion of the above initiative, with the aim of turning it into a strong gastronomy brand. Some of the actions which suggested are:
- The promotion of fine food and haute cuisine through the creativity and experimentation of chefs honored by popular tourist guides.
- The network expansion of the initiative “Tuscan Breakfast”.
- The promotion of itineraries that combine experiences linked to food and culture.
- The collaboration with the Union of Chefs of Tuscany, in order to create gastronomy experiences at the exhibitions and events in which TTPA participates.
- The implementation of a dinner by TTPA, with wines, cold meats, cheeses, oils and various dishes, with the Vetrina Toscana brand and served by local producers.
- The implementation of a conference entirely dedicated to the initiative.
- The strengthening of digital promotion and the focus on the innumerable peculiarities of Tuscany, avoiding only the promotion of the best known local products.
- The implementation of themed mini-tours that introduce journalists to local producers with a sensory and cultural way.
- The creation of a restaurants network under the name “Vetrina Toscana” in order to create a strong gastronomy brand with international recognition.
Where is it applied?
TTPA’s activities are applied at travelers who wish to experience the special and unique tourist product of Tuscany, but also concerns local agencies and entrepreneurs with whom it collaborates, in order to co-create a successful promotion strategy.
When did it applied?
TTPA started its operation in 2016 and tourism promotion plans are created annually.
Results
In the framework of evaluating the effectiveness of its promotional actions, the TTPA conducts research on the tourism of the region, enabling local agencies to redesign their tourism products. In this context, the “Observatory” has been created on its official website, in which the results of these investigations are shared.
Other Information
From 2022, TTPA, in the framework of the annual strategy, emphasizes other issues of great importance for the region and innovative, which seeks to develop vertically with the above tourist products. Specifically, they concern:
- The development of cycling tourism
- The development of camping and caravan tourism
- The development of artistic tourism
- The attraction of female tourism
- The development of tourism for mental health and well-being
- Attracting digital nomads
- The development of horse tourism
- The development of industrial tourism
- The development of sustainable tourism
- The development of school tourism
- Attracting families
- Attracting people with pets
Especially for the development of sustainable tourism in the Tuscany region, in 2023 the design of a Charter of Values was completed, which aims to direct tourism policies towards sustainability and provide useful information for operators and tourists. Among the actions carried out was the mapping of more than 400 tourism businesses that have sustainability certification.
The official website of the Tuscany Tourism Promotion Agency is: https://www.toscanapromozione.it/
