The institutional visit to the States by the mayor of Turin, Stefano Lo Russo, and the president of Piedmont, Alberto Cirio, organized on the occasion of the handover for the university Olympic Games, actually represented an opportunity to promote the region as a tourist destination . So much so that Piedmont has organized a series of B2B meetings and has decided to open its own office in New York, in the headquarters of the Israeli company Jvp, to maintain ties with the American market.
The goal is ambitious: to triple the number of tourists arriving from the United States over the next five years. The growth of tourism as a reference sector for the economic development of Piedmont is a relatively recent phenomenon, linked above all to the 2006 Winter Olympic Games and then consolidated over the years. Today especially the city of Turin and the Langhe have established themselves as tourist destinations.
The “We are Piemonte” workshop, organized by Visit Piemonte in collaboration with ENIT in Manhattan, «involved 67 accredited subjects» highlights the regional councilor for Internationalization Fabrizio Ricca. The event represented one of the initiatives included in the program of collateral promotional activities linked to the passage of the flag of the World University Games from Lake Placid to Piedmont, the next venue for the sporting event in 2025, with competitions in Turin, Bardonecchia, Pragelato, Torre Pellice and Pinerolo.
In 2022, more than 100,000 American tourists stayed in Piedmont, with over 270,000 overnight stays. «The United States represents the sixth foreign market of origin for Piedmont and compared to 2019 we recorded a 4% increase in arrivals and 11% in overnights – underlines the Councilor for Culture, Commerce and Tourism of the Piedmont Region, Vittoria hillock. – This B2B event in New York aims to strengthen the image of Piedmont in the United States, to create new economic agreements and to consolidate existing ones».