IDM Alto Adige: The Winning Formula to Promote the Bolzano Region

By Massimo Terracina

Alto Adige, (aka Sued Tirol) is a special destination in the Italian panorama. Everyone knows Italy is a blessed country looking at it as tourism destination, but in the lack of a real guidance because all the government were absolutely incapable to emphasize the beauty of “Il Bel Paese”, Italy is not using all of its potential.

Alto Adige is a different matter, maybe because they are halfway between Italian fantasy heritage and Austrian rigorous behavior.

The history of tourism here, in the most beautiful mountains of the world, the Dolomites, started in XIX century but developed, as a great resource, last century.

It was Luis Durnwalder, class 1941, governor of the “region with special status” from 1989 to 2013 that lit the flame. Today his heritage has been picked up from Arno Kompatscher, class 1971, born in Fiè dello Sciliar, raising from legal dept. chief of his municipality from 1998 to 2004, president of the board of Cabinovia Siusi - Alpe di Siusi Spa up to 2013, when he was called to lead the autonomous province of Bolzano .

The ruling body of promotion under every angle of Alto Adige is “IDM Alto Adige”, whose name stands for Innovation, Development e Marketing, whose aim is to ease the economic development  in the region, providing services with the goal to help a sustainable growth of local economy and consequently rise the competitiveness of the local companies,

Promote, as integrate body, draw attention, spread the word about the genuine character of the products and the lifestyle, the hospitality is one of the main aspect of the so high rated brand recognition of the area, due to the invaluable worth of IDM Alto Adige.

The cleverest action that IDM took has been to gather all the brands under a “umbrella brand”, so to empower the single product capacity to penetrate the market. Whatever it could be.

The “umbrella brand” Alto Adige helps to overcome the gap for the small business to represent and witness the high standard of the area: hospitality, high level offer of the province from the landscape charm to the gastronomic offer, from the excellence of the wines to the strongly rooted traditions.

The umbrella brand, managed by IDM Alto Adige, conveys the promise of the Alto Adige brand, that comes from a territory characterized by a "symbiosis full of contrasts between Alpine and Mediterranean elements, between spontaneity and reliability, nature and culture".

The umbrella brand design is subject to continuous organic development and is not only used by IDM but is also designed to be used by several other players in Alto Adige. Companies and tourism organizations and neighboring sectors use the destination brand; the localization brand "South Tyrolean Company" is available for companies in the production and services sector; finally, the producers of controlled and quality food products can use the South Tyrol quality label. South Tyrolean Apple and Speck Alto Adige are marked with the PGI (Protected Geographical Indication) brand, while Alto Adige DOC Wines use the "Alto Adige Wines" brand.

Tourism has benefited so much of this great idea. IDM is divided in clusters, they promote the destination they are entitled of, but in total cross cooperation, involving some neighbor when they do some promotion. 

Synergy, deep knowledge, full trust from the tourism chain (hotel, hosts, lifts, mountain huts, stores, restaurants…) is the key for the success of this organization that made possible Alto Adige to rise up as a unique destination in Italian panorama, as a model of business that, if could be replicated everywhere in terms of professionalism, dedication, knowledge, management could really help Italy to rise up to a tourism world power, much more than what it currently is.

The fact is that you can enjoy Alto Adige both in winter and summer, not to mention the shoulder seasons, with an high scale of hospitality. Its hotel are amazing, the wellness through spa is one of the best you can meet with a tradition, outdoor ranges from ski and winter activities to a wide number of options in summer as walking and E-biking along the well signed tracks, hundreds of kilometers, with an unparalleled attention to unique food, from tradition to innovation, landscapes surrounded by gorgeous mountains, and a serie of endless activities that make you day slip away so fast.

Just for the record: 2010 summed up 7.703 tourists, for 33.685 room nights, for a medium stay of 4.4 days.

Germany is the main “customer” (3.358k arrivals), Italy as domestic counted for 2.258, Austria is third but with only 380. 2020 season will be so different. Alto Adige was the first to reopen after lockdown, and mostly all the business are open, but the lack of many nationalities will affect the season by, more or less, 30% decrease of guests. Only good point is that many Italians will (re)discover this wonderful region of our country!