Marina Gabrieli has been appointed national coordinator of the "Roots Tourism" project funded under the NRP and coordinated by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, for an integrated strategy aimed at the recovery of the tourism sector in post covid-19 Italy. This was announced by Luigi Maria Vigni, director general for Italians abroad and migration policies of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Marina Gabrieli is also Ambassador for the Puglia Region of We the Italians.

The program, funded to the tune of 20 million euros, sees the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation as the implementing party and has been included in the "Attractiveness of Villages." sector of the Recovery Plan.

Through the project, Italian communities abroad present around the world will be involved in the enhancement of the tourism offer within in a strategy that aims to reverse the process of impoverishment of Italian villages to actively support the post-Covid revitalization of culture, tourism and the economy. The goal is to enable a well-rounded rediscovery of places of origin, allowing visitors to reacquaint themselves with the culture of their origins, including through traditions, testimonies, crafts and gastronomy.

Marina Gabrieli is from Salento, born and raised in Galatina. For more than a decade she has been working on the topic of Italian emigration and root tourism-the journeys of the more than 60 million Italians and Italian-descendants who return to Italy to discover the places from which their ancestors left-through various training, research and publication projects for private and public entities, including the University of Bologna, the University of Calabria and the Migrantes Foundation.

She was a founding member and president of the Italian Raiz Association established in 2017. She is a member of the General Council of Apulians in the World. She has carried out numerous experiences abroad in Apulian and Italian communities in South America and the United States.

"I am happy," Gabrieli commented, "for this new position and honored to be able to work for an important national institution such as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation. I have the duty, however, to thank Puglia, my region, which allowed me to take my first steps in the world of Apulian communities around the world and which accompanied me on my path of professional growth. This is a choral project in which all the regions, municipalities, national and Italian institutions abroad, cultural and tourism businesses, associations, and individual professionals will have to take each other by the hand to carry it forward with dedication and awareness. Because it is a unique opportunity for the enhancement of our villages, our inland areas but, above all, for our Italians abroad and their descendants, many of whom have always dreamed of a connection with their homeland and Italy has a moral duty to give them back a history."