The Municipality of Sorrento has introduced an absolutely huge tax break to support local industry as part of their initiative “Made in Sorrento”, and this could be a complete game changer for experiential tourism in the area!
Mega tax break supports local artisans and experiential tourism
They have introduced a 30% reduction in taxes for local crafts workers and shops. The idea behind this is to help protect the local businesses from the threat of gigantic, multinationals on one hand, and the influx of chinese knock-off merch on the other. Sorrento has carved out a niche for itself in the tourist sector because of its crafts sector which is run by locals in the locality.
Artès philosophy about experiential tourism is to offer products which involve people from the locality and our experiential approach involves participating in the daily lives and traditional work practices of locals. This is why we strongly support initiatives such this one from the Municipality of Sorrento, which not only supports and protects their local crafts workers, but opens up opportunities for experiential tourism. This move from the Municipality of Sorrento shows the trend for towns and cities to protect their local, traditional businesses from massive and faceless international companies. What is great news for all travel agencies selling experiential products is that this type of initiatives supports the new experiential market that is growing exponentially in Italy as well.
Sorrento has always been popular with the tourists
The little town of Sorrento on the Penisola Sorentina has always been on the tourist map and it now looks like it is well-placed in terms of experiential tourism too. Sorrento has been a popular tourist destination for decades, or longer, in fact, almost since tourism began. The so-called Grand Tour which every English, French and German gentleman and scholar absolutely had to undertake in the 1800s included Sorrento as an important stop. This was no doubt due to Sorrento’s Roman and Greek Origins. Famous visitors from the era of the Grand Tour include Lord Byron, John Keats, Walter Scott, and Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe. So, Sorrento was a famous tourist destination in the 1800s for people from the United Kingdom and Germany!
Sorrento lures tourists with convenient location and crafts culture
Sorrento is probably also a favoured tourist destination because of its proximity to other important tourist destinations like Naples, Pompeii, Vesuvius, and the islands of Capri and Ischia. One of Sorrento’s biggest attractions in the 20th and 21st centuries is its status as a town of “artigiani”, which translates as artisan, craftsman, or handicraftsman. Sorrento has maintained a culture of crafts, which are sold by locals in locals shops. This fits perfectly well with our Artès approach to experiential tourism, and interestingly, Sorrento’s mayor and local town hall have recently taken steps to protect these local crafts workers and shops which means they are supporting experiential tourism. This is also an encouraging sign of things to come for travel agencies working in the field of experiential tourism.
Made in Sorrento is made for Artès’ experiential tourism
The Municipality of Sorrento understands the importance of “Made in Sorrento” as a concept to maintain and increase the tourism in their town. “Made in the locality” is a trend that is growing. It helps defend local areas from the influx of huge companies, but also represents a way in for tour operators offering experiential tourism.
We at Artès are very excited to see that the Municipality of Sorrento have decided to support experiential tourism in Italy – and you should be too! These developments are perfect for the kind of experiential tourism we at Artès specialise in creating, developing, and selling. We already have several experiential tourism products which connect the experiential tourist with the locals making traditional items in the traditional way.
Please visit our website to find out more about our unique offers and see just how well these initiatives taken by the Municipality of Sorrento fit in with our experiential tourism products and offers in our existing catalogue.