Experiences, people and trust, the face of “new tourism”

What leads us to want to discover places off the “conventional” paths? Which is worth more, a review on a travellers’ website or an article on a specialised portal? How do communication, the promotion of tourism and the future of the territories intersect? Can the sharing economy contribute to the development of tourism in our country?

There were many points and considerations that emerged this afternoon at the Glocal Festival, during a discussion on the subject, which was moderated by the VareseNews journalist, Maria Carla Cebrelli, and which involved Matteo Frigerio, Airbnb’s country manager for Italy, Luca Natale, the head of communication for the “Cinque Terre” Park and Alessandra Favaro, a journalist and blogger specialised in travel and tourism.

Three keywords guided the debate: experience, trust and people. The first was considered from two perspectives: “competence” (of the intermediaries who today find themselves redefining their role in a context where, thanks to the digital and new technologies, those who demand and supply goods and services can get in direct contact, without any other intermediaries) and “enrichment” (referring to the universe of situations and possibilities that can only be reached by going to a specific place or by meeting a particular person).

@matteofrigerio: “When talking about Italy, there isn’t just the Colosseum or Santa Maria Novella, there is the excellence of the people. The excellence of the hospitality resides in the Italians” #glocal18 @festivalglocal @varesenews

And experiences are perhaps the greatest incentives that guide travellers’ choices today, we cannot ignore what can generate them, the lives of people; we cannot say that we have experienced a territory unless we come into contact with those who live it, with the context, the land, the dialect, the knowledge. Last but not least, trust, the backbone of the sharing economy, is what encourages those who have to find their way through an ocean of information, reviews, posts, articles and comments, to select one piece of advice over another or to rely on the possibilities offered by technology rather than on “traditional channels”.

Clara Varano: “If I go to sleep in a house and I have to enter a code to get in, the feeling of hospitality is lost…” @LucaNatale70 to #glocal18

Emma Trevisan: “For Airbnb, Italy is the third country in terms of offer, and the second in terms of experience: something to brag about”. #glocal18

Samhain: “A food journalist can no longer just talk about the product, but also about the local economy that generates that product, because the reader wants to know more”. #Glocal18@festivalglocal @varesenews