Relaunching tourism in

Lombardy:

A proposal for an

“Enogastronomic” Product Club

Tutors:

Francesca d’Angella

Andrea Rossi

Authors:

Mirko Chianesi, Sarah Chow,

Sara Monfregola*, Martina Placucci,

Andrea Scacchioli, Stefania Sossi *phase 1

Master in

Tourism Management

VII Edition

2010-2011

1) The assigment

2) Introduction

3) The product club What is a product club?

Why a «Enogastronomic» product club?

The philosophy

Advantages

Public and Private members

Requirements

The interorganizational structure

Roles and functions

4) The financial structure

5) Performance evaluation

6) The offering system

Our goals were:

• To build the organizational structure of the product club;

• To choose the public and private bodies to involve;

• To pinpoint the offering system of the product club;

• To structure the proper financial model of the organization.

The idea of the product club that we created has to be seen as a pilot

test for a further development of this type of tourism organization. If

this pilot test will be successful, the LR could think about implementing

other product clubs in the future, focused on other tourism offer (e.g.

cultural cities, Alps, etc.).

HOWEVER WE THINK

THAT CULTURE IS

SOMETHING MORE,

ESPECIALLY IN ITALY,

WHERE A SIMPLE HABIT

(EATING) HAS BEEN

TRANSFORMED INTO

…a way of life.

That is why the

enogastronomic culture is a

good starting point to

relaunch tourism in

Lombardy.

Traditional culture:

«Culture, … includes

knwoledge, belief, art,

law, morals, custom, and

any other capabilities and

habits acquired by man as

a member of society»

(Tylor, 1871)

THE PRODUCT CLUB

A tourism product club is a product development

partnership established and led by the tourism industry

stakeholders including small- and/or medium-sized

companies. The group pools its resources to develop new

market ready products or to increase the value of existing

ones.

What is a product club?

NO 46%

YES 54%

ENOGASTRONOMIC OFFER

Ancient tradition of enogastronomic

culture;

Growth of enogastronomic tourism (+60% in

2010 with 5mln€ of revenues*);

Enogastronomic heritage of undisputed

value;

Presence of high quality restaurants and

culinary innovation;

It is strictly related with the theme of the

2015 Milan Expo (Feeding the Planet,

Energy for Life);

Based on our 182 websites D-WEB analysis of

European Regions, the enogastronomic offer

is an important part of Tourism also in the

other European Countries (see figure).

The «Enogastronomic» product club of Lombardy region has to

link together the main actors of the enogastronomic heritage of

the region in order to create a set of tourist activities

that lead visitors to discover the area through culinary

experiences.

The product club will be able to

create a network of industries,

public and private actors that will

join their efforts and their

knowledge to offer an

unforgettable experience for

tourists interestes in the art of

food.

ENOGASTRONOMIC

PRODUCT CLUB

The logo represents the Lombardy territory, plunged in the

enogastronomic culture, symbolized by the colour of the red wine.

The «Enogastronomic» P.C. of

Lombardy region wants to

differentiate itself by offering

to its partners quality tourism and

marketing services; and to the

tourists a range of new

experiences. Its aim is to make the

tourist discover the terroir of

Lombardy through the five senses*

while helping to preserve the local

enogastronomic traditions.

To be present in the map guides, the catalogues and the webiste

that will be created. These will be the main promotion tools used by

the Product Club;

The creation of a enogastronomic network that will allow to link

more all the production areas;

To get benefits from the market research and studies that will be

held by the Product Club;

The integration of the enogastronomic offer with other tourism

products;

A core promotion of those rural areas that are not usually included

in the main tourism itineraries;

The opportunity to take part to events of a certain importance that

will have a great impact on tourism promotion;

To be assisted by tourism professionals in the development of

tourism packages and promotion;

FOR THE MEMBERS:

Periodic reports: related to the

members trend, the evaluation of

the satisfaction of each product

club components.

General statistics: on a national

and regional level.

Marketing&Promotion support

Professional assistance (training

programmes & refresher courses)

The Enogastronomic Product Club of

Lombardy region offers products and

advantages both to its members and

to the tourists (the final clients):

Lombardy Region

Lombardy provinces

Chambers of Commerce

Tourism Offices like APT, IAT, EPT

UNPLI Regional Committe for Lombardy

Exhibitions and Local Festivals(i.e. Sagre) organizations,

Tourism Consortia for Lombardy,

Local and Traditional products and wine Producers Consortia,

Territorial associations and others tourism promotion organization

of Lombardy,

Wines and flavours’ roads Federations of Lombardy

Folk, cultural and traditional heritage associations of Lombardy

PUBLIC

PRIVATE

To be located in the Lombardy Region Territory;

To be able to speak one or more foreign languages;

To provide brochures, thematic maps and other

communication facilities;

To promote incoming flows of tourists, culture and

traditions.

To organize or participate to exhibitions, festivals and

events related to regional enogastronomy.

GENERAL

Each dish must be prepared utilizing ingredients and local products

with DOC/DOCG/STG/IGT/DOP /IGP labels in a percentage of 75%;

To sell local products with DOC/DOCG/STG/IGT/DOP /IGP labels;

To be able to offer menus based on traditional recipes even if

revised in a modern way;

To change menus according to the seasonality of local products ;

The 75% of the total wine offer must be covered by local wines;

To offer alternative products, like vegetarian, biological and gluten-

free food;

For accomodation and lodging: to be able to provide also additional

services.

HO.RE.CA.

To give high visibility of the Product Club Logo (pubblished on the

menus, brochures, own website, etc);

To expose in a key point of the structure the whole map of the

itineraries and give general information about the P.C.;

To provide brochures and other facilities in order to make visitors

able to achieve the Vision and the Mission of the P.C.;

To provide monthly report about their activities to the Analysis

Department.

FOR NEW MEMBERS

FOR PRODUCERS

To produce one or more traditional products – see Annexes/Table 1;

To respect the seasonality of the products;

To respect the consistency and the traditional method of

production processes.

General

Manager

President

Assembly Members Operative Functions

Marketing &

Communication

Analysis Dep.

Finance &

Administration

Public Sector

HO.RE.CA.

Local Producers

Tour Operators

&

Travel Agencies

22%

22%

19%

37%

Membership Composition*

Public Sector

Producers & Consortia

Tour Operator/Travel Agencies/Event Organizers

HO.RE.CA. / Agritourism / Other Lodging Fac.

* This is a membership composed by 63 members considering an average of 1-2 participants per

province

THE FINANCIAL

STRUCTURE

Annual Fees

(in K of €)

%

1. Public members 12,5k 175k 24%

2. Private members (avg fee)* 0,6k 30k 3%

3. Marketing activities

contributions** 200k 26%

4. Region funds for annual

programmes 350k 47%

TOTAL 755K 100%

Annual Fees

(in K of €) %

1. Public members 12,5k 175k 24%

2. Private members (avg fee)* 0,6k 30k 3%

3. Marketing activities contributions** 200k 26%

4. Region funds for annual

programmes 350k 47%

TOTAL 755K 100%

* Private members’fee is calculated on their capacity/volumes

** From public/private co-participants not involved in the PC membership

Annual Costs

(in K of €) %

1. Investment for the annual programme - Enogastronomic&Culture: website, consultants, etc

300k 40%

2. General costs for programme management 50k 7%

3. Marketing&Promotion - brochures, campains, exhibitions, fairs etc

200k 26%

4. Employees payroll (with VAT and taxes) - President

- General Manager

- 3 Operative Team

- 1 Administrative Responsible

205k 25k

50k

100k

30k

27%

TOTAL 755K 100%

Note: This financial model has been inspired by pre-existent Product Club budgets.

PERFORMANCE

EVALUATION

SEMESTRAL ANALYSIS OF STATISTICS

The number of “clicks” in the P.C. website (annually)

The number of visitors in the P.C. area (quarterly)

SATISFACTION QUESTIONNAIRE

An annual evaluation of members’ satisfaction about the P.C.

MEMBERS’ DYNAMICS

New entrance requests and exits

MEDIA COVERAGE

Press, TV, Radio, Social Media

SURVEY FOR TOURISTS’ SATISFACTION

On line questionnaire

Customer Satisfaction forms

BLIND AND OFFICIAL INSPECTIONS

Product certifications

Facilities provided

Environmental quality

To check if the members keep meeting the requirements

THE OFFERING SYSTEM

The Enogastronomic Product Club

of Lombardy region offers products

and advantages both to its

members and to the tourists (the

final clients):

FOR THE TOURISTS:

• THE RIGHT PROPOSAL FOR

DIFFERENT TARGETS

ENOGASTRONOMIC

ITINERARIES

CULINARY WORKSHOPS

SINGLE ATTRACTIONS

THE ENOGASTRONOMIC EXPERIENCE

CAN NOT BE THE SAME FOR EVERYONE!

IT’S IMPORTANT TO

THE DIFFERENT TOURISTS NEEDS &

TO ATTRACT THE RIGHT TARGET,

TO THE RIGHT OFFERYING PROPOSAL.

CHEESE & WINE TASTING

TOUR IN STELVIO NATIONAL

PARK (VALTELLINA)

TARGET: GREEN TRAVELLER

CULINARY WORKSHOP IN

FRANCIA CORTA

TARGET: LEARNING ITALIAN

LIFE STYLE

A LUXURIOUS

ENOGASTRONOMIC

EXPERIENCE IN MILAN

TARGET: LUXURY LOVERS

Mirko Chianesi, Sarah Chow,

Sara Monfregola, Martina Placucci,

Andrea Scacchioli, Stefania Sossi