Regional Institute of Wine and Oil

The project: From local culture to food and wine tourism

Create a functional and concrete network between the various actors who work in the area for a valuable and real tourist offer. This is the generating and promoting idea of the APQ project "From local culture to food and wine tourism". Project which primarily involves the Ministry of Economic Development, IRVOS and the Federation of Sicilian Wine and Flavor Roads.

We have already reached the second stage which includes meetings and debates in the areas intended for the creation of new food and wine tourism products. The first took place during the summer months. In these days therefore, from 28 September to 1 October, a person in charge of the technical secretariat of the Ministry, Dr. Canova, and the project representatives were engaged in a "tour" which personally involved the wine producers "with the aim of receiving proactive input," explains Canova during the meeting held on Saturday at the Enoteca Strade of Marsala Wine - understand the weak points, starting from the analysis of the real situation, asking them which places in their territory they would like tourists to visit beyond their own cellar".

And to do this not simple debates and exchanges of opinions, but actual tests compiled by the producers which will then be analyzed and constitute guidelines. “The issue – states Dario Di Bernardi of the Institute – is deeply felt in the area, there is a real need to create a valid wine tourism network. IRVOS accepted the challenge by forming an operational unit”. Sicily “has changed a lot in the last twenty years in external perception – he adds – but now we need to bring order, team up, give identity to the confusion. In short, create continuity in the territory, a "wine route". And to do this "we need to understand what we have and above all what tourists expect", concludes Di Bernardi. Visitor centres, local centres, itineraries are the areas on which the project will work, for the implementation of which space has been given to young people. “This is, in my opinion – comments Gori Sparacino, president of the Federation of Wine Roads and Flavors of Sicily – the first real project that addresses the issue of wine tourism. Networking has always been the objective of the Wine Routes: this is why they were formed, despite all the external and internal problems". Castellammare del Golfo, Mazara del Vallo, Alcamo, Marsala, Menfi, Erice, are the stages that involved the project representatives and those who work in the sector as well as the institutions. Recovering the sense of the territory is the other no less important theme that was developed together with the expectations of those who work in Sicily and those who come to Sicily to visit it, the tourists. Present at the meeting in Marsala were the director of the Superintendence for Cultural Heritage of Trapani, Rossella Giglio, who launched the idea of an archaeological wine museum; the president of the Marsala Association Salvatore Lombardo; Vincenzo Fazio of the Erice Wine Route. In addition, obviously, to the local producers who showed enthusiasm for the project and expressed their ideas.