A meeting between "the culture and
identity of the Sicilian people" and "culinary and agricultural
tradition", turning them into a "tourist driving force": this is
the objective of a recent conference called 'Island Tourism:
Sicily Unesco mediterranean diet', which took place at Expo's
Palazzo Italia, according to the deputy president of Unioncamere
Sicilia, Vittorio Messina.
The Mediterranean diet, in particular the Sicilian one, as an
incentive to promote tourism in Sicily was the central theme
running through the conference.
"We want to strengthen the relationship between
culture-art-food and agriculture because we are confident are
products are second to none - explained Messina - In Sicily
there are 478,000 companies: more than one third operate in the
agricultural field and we have many PGI (protected Geographical
Indication and PDO (protected denomination of origin) products.
Often production is not industrial and we are proud of this
'limit' because it ensures the quality of the product itself.
"At this time of crisis, we can certainly restart from our
food and agriculture because they represent the identity of our
people".
The conference also represented the chance to talk about the
potential of tourism in Sicily and the uniqueness of UNESCO
sites.
"Sicily it the Italian region with the highest number of
Unesco world heritage sites, but this potential is yet to be
fully exploited, mainly because of the inability to make good
use of networking- stressed former Unesco ambassador and Malta
permanent delegate Raymond Bondin. However, I am sure that many
more acknowledgements will come, especially with regard to
naturalistic heritage. I am persuaded that Sicily could easily
live of tourism and agriculture alone".
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