Good practice:

International city-to-city networks: slow turism and slow food: the case of Bra

Bra, with a constantly increasing population of more than 29,000 inhabitants, is demographically the third town of the Province of Cuneo, at the centre of gravity of the Province's population, lying less than 50 kilometres from Turin. Thanks to its location between the "food valley" of the Langhe and Roero (UNESCO site 2014), Bra is one of the most important Piedmontese centres of wine and gastronomy. Several projects address the Bra-Langhe natural-cultural-rural-enogastronomy tourism including the topical novelties and new “clients” (and their new needs). The aim is to emphasize the triangulation between tourist operators and the local population and their territory, which is based on two essential dimensions: first, the physical one which involves the places, the scenarios and the sites; second, the cultural one which expresses traditions, customs and everyday life. The Movement of Cittaslow was born in 1999. The main goal of Cittaslow has been until today to enlarge the philosophy of Slow Food to local communities and governments of towns, applying the concepts of eco-gastronomy at practice of everyday life.
Municipalities which join the association are motivated by curios people of a recovered time, where man is still protagonist of the slow and healthy succession of seasons, respectful of citizens’ health, the authenticity of products and good food, rich of fascinating craft traditions of valuable heritage.

Not available specifically for cittaslow and slowfood networks. Some EU projects had been developed in this framework instead:
SPOT EU Horizon2020 project: € 3.000.000
AMPELO EU Interreg ALCOTRA € 1.017.774,67

Tourist yearly flow is increasing since decades (widening the tourists’ country origins). Bra-Langhe province and the surroundings became a multi-dimensional tourism spot, with a UNESCO Heritage recognition for Langhe/Barolo/Roero area.
Cities from the networks are learning from Bra, which was une of the founders of Slowcities (CittàSlow) network. Actually, 87 cities in Italy received the recognition of Cittaslow (at the beginning, they were in 4, including Bra).

NA

- Good Tourism governance in Piedmont Region (Region-Province-City levels are connected and coordinated). Tourism policies aimed at fostering local empowerment
- Quality of hospitality service is high
- UNESCO label boosted the tourism and produced positive outcomes
- Effective territorial marketing through Wine (e.g. Barolo, Barbaresco) and Food-Cheese labels (e.g. Bra cheese, Bra meat)
- Recent ongoing EU projects are improving the local tourism-wise managerial capacities and the tourists’ access to historic-cultural sites