A new tourism appeal for Turin

During Torino 2006, the city-centre Piazza Castello served as the Medals Plaza and held victory ceremonies. The “Look” of the Games was based on visuals conveying characteristics of the “piazza”, which is the traditional meeting place in Italian culture. This presented a new image for the city, celebrating its outstanding monuments, museums, cultural attractions and baroque architecture.

Before the Games, Turin was seen as an “industrial” town and was mainly associated with the automotive industry as, for more than a century, the city had been the home of the Italian automobile manufacturer Fiat.

The subsequent long-lasting legacy of the Torino 2006 Games on tourism to the city has been positive. In 2000, and despite Turin’s rich attractions, the Turin province welcomed only three million tourists; while the Piedmont region was visited by eight million people. By 2010, the number of tourists visiting Turin had grown to six million, making Turin the fourth-most visited city in Italy after Rome, Florence and Venice. The same year, over 12 million people visited the Piedmont region overall. In 2018, Piedmont was ranked 8th (out of 20 regions) in terms of touristic presence, with over 15 million tourists welcomed that year.

Before the Olympic Games in 2006, leisure and cultural tourism had accounted for only 20 per cent of Turin’s overall visitor numbers. In 2008, this number had reached 40 per cent.

The positive impact on tourism in the region was also felt in the mountains. San Sicario Fraiteve, a winter and summer holiday resort, was established in the 1970s and was equipped with state-of-the-art skiing facilities in the Piedmont region. The location forms part of the Via Lattea (Milky Way) skiing highway and hosted three women's Alpine events during Torino 2006. Before the Games, 40 per cent of the Via Lattea’s customers came from abroad. By 2017, foreigners accounted for 85 per cent of its visitors.

The Alpine towns in the upper Susa and Chisone valleys also shared Turin’s goal of changing their image and used the Games to boost their competitiveness in winter tourism by extending and improving their infrastructures and accommodation facilities.

International perceptions of Italy’s industrial north had changed. The process of change was monitored by six surveys, from 2002 until 2007, in Turin and the surrounding Alpine valleys. The surveys garnered more than 8,500 responses. Seventy per cent of the interviewees said that the image of the city and region had improved from having hosted the Olympic Winter Games. Fifty-two per cent believed that the city’s cultural structures had been highlighted, and 44 per cent agreed that Turin had acquired new visibility within Italy and around the world. Also, ninety-three per cent of Italians and 71 per cent of foreign visitors surveyed during the 2004 – 2009 period said they intended to return to Turin in the future.

Subsequently, the hospitality capacity has increased to cater for this more intense flow of tourists. In 1999, the Piedmont region passed Regional Law No. 18/1999, which supports the creation of new hospitality offers. Before this Piedmont region-specific investment, the hospitality capacity was static. Between 2000 and 2007, over 26,000 new beds were created. Since 2007, the number of beds has stabilised.

Also, through the “Ospita un Familiare dei Campioni” (“Host a family member of a champion”) and “Affitta la Tua Casa” (“Rent your house”) initiatives in the mountain areas, local residents offered hospitality and accommodation to over 4,000 visitors. This scheme provided the basis for future bed-and-breakfast structures in the region. However, the “Affitta la Tua Casa” project did not continue after the Games because it was not possible to maintain the high rental fees that were in place during the Olympic Games.

The “Denominazione d’Ospitalità Controllata” (B&B DOC) initiative, also supported by the Turin Province and TOROC, produced 76 certified bed and breakfast accommodations (data from 2010).