Roots Tourism starred in Florence, November 30, 2022 in the context of BTO - Be Travel Onlife, the benchmark event in Italy dedicated to the marriage between innovation and tourism. In an even more innovative formula set in the Metaverse, Giovanni Maria De Vita, head of the PNRR project on Roots Tourism of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, confronted with Edoardo Colombo expert in innovation and tourism, strategic advisor of the event and also Ambassador for tourism within We The Italians.

Title of the discussion: Roots Tourism, welcoming root travelers to their home territories. The Roots Tourism Promotion Project, included in the Next Generation EU (PNRR) provides 20 million euros in funding and aims to fuel the demand for tourism services from Italian-descendants around the world (about 80 million people).

Councilor De Vita presented the initiatives that the Italian Ministry for Foreign Affairs intends to promote, incorporating the European Union's guidelines that are inspired by eco-sustainability, digitization and support for youth employment, aiming in particular to create a new recognized professionalism of specialized operator in root tourism.

Experimentation in the metaverse - stressed Edoardo Colombo - aims to involve the new generation of Italians, to whom it is intended to propose a dedicated tourist offer, far from the traditional and more congested destinations of Italian tourism and designed to meet the demands and expectations of root travelers.

An extraordinary initiative that also intends to use this channel to strengthen mutual understanding and consolidate the relationship between Italy and its communities abroad.

A further expression of Roots Tourism that will enhance, with the use of technologies, the national cultural richness, experiencing the traditions, the most famous events in the world and the historical events that unite us, becoming an opportunity to rediscover a heritage shared by a huge community of people scattered all over the world, all linked by the love for Italy.