It was presented to International Tourism Exchange, BIT Milanothe most important international event dedicated to the tourism product, the Lagazuoi Winning Ideas Mountain Awardsthe award dedicated to the most innovative and avant-garde projects in the mountain sector.
In this setting, at the stand of the Veneto Region, the fourth edition and the catalog on the results of the first three years of the Lagazuoi Winning Ideas Mountain Awards were presented in the morning, a curatorial project conceived by Lagazuoi EXPO Dolomiti, one of the highest exhibition and museum centers in the world, at an altitude of 2,732 metres, between Cortina d’Ampezzo and Alta Badia.
“Today we are talking about a journey in which we want to introduce people, companies and ideas capable of enhancing the Italian mountain sector – explained Eng. Stefano Illing, creator of the Lagazuoi EXPO Dolomiti, promoter of the WIMA -. If with Lagazuoi EXPO Dolomiti we have built a container, with Lagazuoi Winning Ideas Mountain Awards we have enriched it with an idea, which speaks of innovation, products, food and wine, how one can live and support the territory and tourism in the mountains. ”
“With the launch of the fourth edition of the Lagazuoi Winning Ideas Mountain Awards, Cortina d’Ampezzo is confirming itself as a place of innovation as well as tradition. A place that since the birth of alpine and dolomitic tourism has known how to be fertile ground for new ideas, both from the area and from its guests. A locality that now, at the dawn of the Milan-Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic Games, is going through a period of profound transformation, under the banner of environmental, social and economic sustainability, accessibility and inclusiveness, the digitization of services and relationship with residents and guests. This event, which once again focuses the spotlight on the peaks surrounding Cortina, I am sure will offer the Conca Ampezzana yet more important moments for reflection and a desire for evolution. It will make Cortina a place where innovation has become a tradition” the testimony of Roberta Alveràdeputy mayor and councilor for tourism of the Municipality of Cortina d’Ampezzo in the preface of the catalogue.
Born in 2020, WIMAs aim to grow and spread the idea of the mountain as a place of innovation and virtuous interaction between man and the environment. 34 projects, products and services awarded in this first three-year period: innovative materials, ingenious solutions, different tourism experiences developed by companies, start-ups and subjects that enhance the creative potential of the high lands. Thematic categories have been identified and valorised every year: technical clothing and innovative materials, mountain food and wine productions, Apps, startups, slow and sustainable tourism.
Among the winning projects of the first three years, we find overalls made with apple waste, an App for digital woodcutters, boots that “read” as you ski, barns transformed into circular kitchens, solid drinks to carry in your rucksack, spatial suits for snow, portable garbage disposals for shelters, new forms of territorial communication, augmented reality for tourism and much more. All experiences that contribute to overturning the current paradigm, which would see the mountain only as an unchanged place of tradition, while it is a territory devoted to innovation, which looks to a new type of traveller, sportsman and hiker, sensitive to sustainability issues.