Last week, Italy’s Ministry of Tourism launched its latest campaign entitled Italia: Open to Meraviglia (‘Italy: Open to Wonder’).
Fronted by Botticelli’s Venus in the role of a ‘Virtual Influencer’, and conveyed almost entirely in Italian, the €9 million campaign has already come under heavy scrutiny both at home and abroad.
Some have raised eyebrows at the awkward tagline “Italia: Open to Meraviglia”, a mishmash of Ital-English, which finishes with a word few non-Italian speakers will understand (and even fewer will know how to pronounce).
Others have questioned the choice of the campaign’s protagonist as an AI-generated adaptation of Botticelli’s Venus, particularly given Italy’s position on artificial intelligence, as encapsulated through its ban on ChatGPT.
Some eagle-eyed viewers have even pointed out that one shot from its launch video, which shows a group of young people enjoying an aperitivo in a sunlit courtyard, was not shot in Italy but in neighbouring Slovenia.
But what concerns me most is the superficiality of the campaign and the image of Italy it promotes.
Italy is home to 58 UNESCO sites, meaning it boasts more cultural patrimony than any other country in the world. Around 65 million people visit Italy each year, contributing to an industry that accounts for 13% of the country’s GDP. Tourism, to put it simply, is the lifeblood of the Italian economy. But in recent years the over-concentration of tourists in places like Venice, Florence, and Portofino, has damaged local communities and created friction with locals.
The town of Portofino has just brought in laws to fine tourists up to €275 for lingering over selfies on its most photogenic public paths. Rome’s authorities can fine tourists for sitting on the Spanish Steps while in Venice and Florence, tourists can be fined up to €500 for eating on some of its busiest streets.
Except for the brief pause during the Covid pandemic, the debate during the last ten years has been how to mitigate the damaging effects of Italy’s overtourism while channelling the income it provides more effectively into the Italian economy.
The best suggestion so far has been to encourage travellers to venture off the beaten path, to spend some time away from the sightseeing circuit of the big cities and to explore, and thereby invest, the small towns and unspoilt countryside. In other words to mitigate superficial sightseeing with sustainable tourism.
In this context, Italia: Open to Meraviglia seems all the more bizarre
What disappoints me most about this campaign is the decision to front it with a ‘Virtual Influencer’ who uses Italy’s beauty as a mere backdrop.
Botticelli’s Influencer-Venus engages not with her environment but only with her own image.
She has her back turned to the sites that attract so many travellers, and plays to clichés and stereotypes in a way that seems packaged for the Social Media Age.
So what’s the rationale behind this campaign? According to Marco Testa, the campaign’s developer, “we hope that Botticelli’s Venus will become very popular with young people through this combination of art and digital technology. It’s a slightly different way of representing Italy and targeting younger tourism.”
But is this stripped-down image of Italy really what younger tourists want? And does pandering to the ‘influencer audience’ risk alienating Italy’s broader demographic of travellers?
Click here to view the campaign’s Instagram.
I believe that Italy’s allure lies in its authenticity. Its art and architecture, cuisine and culture.
The joy of exploring Italy lies in interacting with locals, immersing yourself in authentic experiences, and venturing off the beaten path. After all, travel is about broadening the mind, letting yourself experience other cultures, and feeding your curiosity, not treating travel destinations as theme parks whose attractions serve solely as backdrops for selfies.
Those responsible for deciding the direction of travel for Italian tourism should be inviting visitors to immerse themselves in Italy with openness and curiosity, not using its patrimony as stereotypical backdrops for their branding.
And not just for the sake of those visiting, but for those living in Italy’s tourist destinations too.
Visiting Rome? Let me show you around!
This article was originally published on Carpe Diem Tours’ website.
