Sistema Turistico Po di Lombardia

Pavia, Lodi, Cremona e Mantova

A project for tourist development in Pavia, Lodi, Cremona and Mantua provinces.

Web site: www.podilombardia.it

History
The agreement for the tourist development of the Po area, that four Lombard provinces  - Pavia, Lodi Cremona and Mantua – drew up on 9 February 2004, is the result of an interesting project started in 2000 by the Council of Po provinces.
Four provinces decided then to work together to promote their culture, art, territory, traditions and cookery. They started elaborating common plans to develop professional tourist services in their territories, and to create a suitable network of resources, always referring to the methodological document “Carta per la valorizzazione del Po” - id est, the document for the development of Po area -, which was defined by the Council itself.
By signing this agreement, the Provinces of Pavia, Lodi, Cremona and Mantua “are establishing a mutual collaboration to activate plans and projects to promote together their territories along Po river, and to create an integrated tourist system involving public and private corporations”. Region Lombardy officially named the program “Po di Lombardia” - id est, Po of Lombardy – as the first Tourist System in Lombardy, with deliberation VIII/518  4 August 2005. This is also the largest tourist system in Italy, covering 1.408.500 inhabitants and 436 municipalities across 7.857 square km.
The first goal was to design a logo, which could represent the specific identity of the four provinces. The approved one symbolizes the water highways of the area (Po, Ticino, Adda. Oglio, Mincio), where Po is the common link for the four provinces.

Carried out products and projects
The system worked to carry tourist products out, promoting the area features, and following above all two directions: inland navigation and “slowly enjoying” the territory.
The inland navigation project holds any new intervention to respect the environment. In the meanwhile, it is meant to connect parking places and cycle tracks, creating a boat + bike system to slowly enjoy the territory.
Still, the project “Il piacere della scoperta - In bicicletta attraverso le province di Pavia, Lodi, Cremona, Mantova alla scoperta slow di un territorio”  - id est, Discovering the provinces of Pavia, Lodi, Cremona and Mantua by bike - promotes this zone rich of rivers, canals, cycle tracks and parks. On 12 May 2006, the project won the Regionando 2006 prize of the Public Administration Forum, with the following motive: “It activated bike and boat itineraries to promote tourist attractions in Pavia, Lodi, Cremona and Mantua provinces. Still, the itineraries are made of daily stages, and tourists can easily start from where they stopped the day before”.
During 2007, the System was a part of BLUe (Building river Landscape across United Europe) project, as a coordinated intervention of Regions Lombardy, Piedmont and Emilia-Romagna, the Province of Piacenza (leader of the Council of Po provinces), Vila Real De Santo Antonio municipality (PORTUGAL- ALGARVE), Parc Fluvial Navas-Berga and Alba-Ter consortium (SPAIN – CATALONIA), and the Prefecture of Pieria (GREECE – MACEDONIA); the project aimed to plan cultural and didactic workshops to promote river areas as networks.

Program for tourist development: updates
In February 2007, the four provinces renewed their agreement and made it more suitable to their new goals. During 2008, they compiled a new Program for tourist development, which is going to be approved by Region Lombardy. The System the four provinces activated has no equal in Italy, on the basis of law 135/2001, and it is a model for many experts of tourist management in Italy. National conferences (Senigallia February 2005, Milan March 2005, Rimini May 2005, Lodi September 2007), interregional conferences (Boretto September 2008, Arena Po October 2008), regional (March 2005, October 2008) and provincial meetings (Monza October 2005, Cremona May 2005 and 2006, Mantua May 2006, Pavia June 2007, Lodi May 2008), university workshops (Bologna October 2004 and Assisi April 2005), participations to interregional conferences (Catania April 2006 and Rome February 2007), presentations during international meetings (IV European river conference April 2004, BLUe project March 2006, Bruxelles November 2006), publications (Halley publisher, September 2004 and November 2006), and four issues of Touring Italia “Rivista del Turismo” magazine in 2005 attest it with no doubt.

The System today
The area of the four provinces - Pavia, Lodi, Cremona and Mantua - has about 800 accommodation facilities with more than 18,000 beds.
In 2007, these facilities hosted 800,000 tourists, while over a million and a half visitors entered Po of Lombardy area; this means 45% more than in 2003. Italian tourists are 75%, while foreign tourists are the remaining 25%.

 web: www.podilombardia.it