Regione Emilia Romagna

Partner Profile

Emilia-Romagna Region has built an extremely profitable tourist industry, which includes seaside resorts, spas, artistic sites, sightseeing, camping, sport facilities and much more. The costal area is the most popular and lucrative tourism sector. Featuring around 4,000 hotel sites spread over 120 km of coastal territory, plus thousands of firms dealing in related activities, the tourist area of Emilia-Romagna is one of the most important ones in Europe and worldwide and it hosts millions of people every year. To enhance and foster the great tradition of hospitality which has always been the distinguishing feature of this Region, the Tourism and Commerce Department of the Emilia-Romagna's Regional Administration has begun a series of actions to improve street furniture, roads and overall city planning in the tourist areas.

Partner's experience in the field of sustainable tourism

With its Economic and Financial Policy Document 2006-10 (Documento di Politica Economica e Finanziaria - DPEF) the Emilia Romagna Region has identified priority objectives for development, innovation, quality and competitiveness in the regional tourist sector. Within the Regional Operative Programme 2007 to 2013, the Emilia Romagna Regione has identified a number of priority lines linked to research in tourism. These include one axis on "valorisation and promotion of cultural and environmental heritage in support of socio-economic development and of sustainable tourism". Within this overall framework, in January 2008 the ROP first call for proposals was launched to finance project concerning "valorisation of the cultural and environmental heritage" and related integrated promotion activities. Calls related to industrial research, technology transfer, innovative enterprise development and energy, environment and sustainable development, in which tourism related enterprises can participate, are currently being defined.