On Thursday, November 30, the “States General of Slow Tourism in the Biella area” took place in Biella, an initiative organized by the Biellezza Foundation in collaboration with Movimento Lento, created with the aim of laying the foundations for the development of the territory as an ideal destination for tourists on foot and by bicycle.

More than one hundred participants gathered at the SellaLab Auditorium: owners of reception facilities, hiking guides and cycling tour leaders, local administrators, associations, rental companies and sector TOs.

In his greetings, the Councillor for Tourism of the Municipality of Biella After Barbara Greggio, underlined the City’s commitment to the development of a “tourism of the roots” that looks at environmental sustainability. Subsequently, Maria Rosa Fagnoni, representative of ATL Terre dell’Alto Piemonte, renewed ATL’s commitment to “collaborate with all the actors who want to promote the territory from the point of view of slow tourism”.

The stakeholders present were able to learn about the funding opportunities related to Interreg and LAG programming, thanks to the interventions of Paolo Balzardi, project officer of the Piedmont Region, and Luca Pozzato, administrative manager of the Montagne Biellesi LAG.

Afterwards, the main slow tourism projects in the Biella area were presented: Paolo Zegna, president of the BIellezza Foundation, presented the Foundation’s outdoor projects; Andrea Rolando, a lecturer at the Polytechnic University of Milan of Biella origins, spoke about the projects to enhance the Biella area thanks to the cycling routes that make it “the heart of Central Park between Turin and Milan”; Cristina D’Ercole of the Monte Rosa Laghi Alto Piemonte Chamber of Commerce presented the Amalake project; Laura Zegna spoke about the projects of the Consorzio Turistico Alpi Biellesi; Raffaella Pivani presented the projects for the development of outdoor tourism in Oasi Zegna; Alessandro Boggio Merlo, new president of the UIB Tourism and Culture section, talked about the design line of the tourism table of the Biella Industrial Union; Tancredi Pino of Cittadellarte Fondazione Pistoletto and Marcello Vaudano of Docbi Centro Studi Biellesi talked about the Woolscape and Biella Città Arcipelago projects; finally, Alberto Conte, president of Movimento Lento, and Ludovico Bizzocchi, owner of BL.outdoor talked about the Camino and the cycle paths of Oropa, their developments thanks to the SlowBI app and the “Terre del Cammino di Oropa” project.

In addition, during the morning, the results of a survey compiled by more than 220 tour operators in the area were presented, which show that there is a strong interest in developing slow tourism projects with a view to networking among local stakeholders; Another interesting fact resulting from the responses to the questionnaire is that more than 75% of operators believe it is important to extend development strategies to a vast area, which includes the Biella, Canavese, Novara, Vercelli, Valsesia and Verbano-Cusio-Ossola areas.

The prospect of creating a new destination for slow tourism in the hinterland area between Milan and Turin is therefore configured.