Nardella's idea to revive tourism in Florence: pair VIPs with tour guides

Actors, TV hosts, politicians and assorted VIPs alongside tour guides to bring tourists back to Florence: this is the idea launched by the mayor of the Tuscan capital, Dario Nardella, to boost tourism in the city of art. The first citizen’s appeal is addressed to famous Florentines: “each of you,” Nardella wrote on his Facebook page, “can support the tourism of our city by working alongside a tour guide and welcoming tourists from all over the world.” According to Nardella, presenter Carlo Conti and actress Chiara Francini have already joined the initiative. And Nardella also said in a video on Instagram that he will carve out free time to participate.

The proposal also generated some controversy. The first arose because some media outlets misrepresented Nardella’s words, thinking that his idea was to invite VIPs to act as guides for tourists, thus replacing professionals: of course, this was not the intent (also because it would be illegal). Having clarified the purpose of the project, however, other doubts have been raised. For example, some think that the initiative may not work with foreign tourists, because if a Florentine is famous in Italy, it is not necessarily so outside Italy. Still others argue against the “influencer” logic that animates this initiative. There are those, on the other hand, who consider it impractical even for simple reasons of public order (if the VIP is extremely famous, a visit by him or her could create a crowd and mayhem). And then there are also Florentines who ask the mayor to avoid repeating the mistakes of the past, and thus avoid returning to mass tourism.

And the guides, what do they think? Opinions are divided: even among the comments to Nardella’s Facebook post, one reads guides who are very supportive of the initiative, and others who feel that their professionalism is enough to get through to tourists, and that VIPs can at best lend themselves to advertising campaigns. And then there are also those who, provocatively, say that to help Florence it would be a case of citizens flanking the mayor. Whether the initiative will be realized is unknown, but in the meantime it is being discussed.

Nardella's idea to revive tourism in Florence: pair VIPs with tour guides

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