The promotion and enhancement campaign of the city of Padua has started, centered on the theme “Padova Urbs picta”. The Venetian city was proclaimed a UNESCO site last year thanks to an intense activity supported by the Municipality of Padua which is strongly committed to favoring the inclusion of fourteenth-century pictorial cycles alongside the most important testimonies of the history of the planet’s civilization. The places of Padua Urbs picta – literally “painted city” – include the Scrovegni Chapel and seven other sites that represent a unique ensemble of exceptional universal value. The Municipality of Padua was the lead body of the candidacy with the Galilean Academy of Sciences, Letters and Arts, the Basilica and the Convent of Sant’Antonio, the Pontifical Delegation, Veneranda Arca del Santo and the Diocese of Padua. Scientific advice was entrusted to the Superintendence of Archeology, Fine Arts and Landscape and the University of Padua.
A city, Padua, which should be considered not a single place, but a “serial site” that unfolds in unique paths in the world and that allows you to make a journey through history, traditions, art and culture. An itinerary that develops between past and present, between the spirituality of religious buildings such as the Basilica of Sant’Antonio, the Abbey of Santa Giustina and the Cathedral, the suggestive view of Prato della Valle, the arcaded streets that animate the center and the Caffè Pedrocchi, one of the iconic places of the city. Among the Paduan sites of historical and artistic interest for the frescoed cycles that guard, in addition to the Scrovegni Chapel, the Baptistery of the Duomo and the Chapel of the Reggia Carrarese, Palazzo della Ragione, the heart of the city, with the shops and markets of the squares ( Piazza delle Erbe, Piazza della Frutta, Piazza dei Signori). Furthermore, the “Agli Eremitani” Civic Museums are worth a visit for the valuable works of art they contain. Padua is also the city of science, in fact it hosts Palazzo del Bo, the historical seat of the University of Padua where Galileo Galilei taught for eighteen years, and the first university botanical garden in Europe, also registered in the list of Unesco World Heritage.
The campaign, aimed at promoting Padua in its various facets and in its multiple attractive aspects, was planned on the main national press organs: radio, TV, newspapers and periodicals. The spot, in cuts of 15 “and 30”, aired until July 16 on Rai networks and in rotation on Radio Deejay and Radio Rai, presents the iconic places of the city of the Saint following the walk of a young couple who travels and lives Padua savoring its beauties. Many elements that make Padua the city “where life is art”. This is the claim of the campaign, which aims to tell the diversions that animate the city: historical, artistic, food and wine, musical events and outdoor itineraries.
“Padua will increasingly have to impose itself on the circuit of the great cities of art, the work done in the Triveneto area since September 2021 is producing significant results, now with this national campaign we aim – declares the Mayor Sergio Giordani – to a decisive leap in quality and soon we will also reach the most significant European centers of interest to invite you to visit our splendid city. Consistency is needed, which is why we want to produce a territorial marketing campaign every year, it is a driving force that will feed itself since the great beauty of Padua will itself be the pillar on which to base an exponential growth in flows: today we attract new visitors and so on themselves will be our testimonials in a virtuous circle “.
“These are particularly emblematic data – declares Councilor Colasio – which highlight how the tourist presences in our city, also thanks to the important promotional campaign in progress, are not only reaching the values recorded in 2019, but denote a constant trend growth, which is a prelude, for the next few years, to the achievement of 2 million visitors per year. Our strategic objective – continues the Councilor – is therefore to configure Padua as one of the most important cities of art in our country. Therefore, to give continuity to this strategy, it will be essential to invest significant amounts of the tourist tax every year in specific and targeted tourism promotion campaigns, not only in Italy, but also in Europe and in other international countries “.
“We are facing a major marketing operation that allows us to position Padua in the eyes of the general public as a rapidly growing tourist destination, a place to visit our historical and artistic beauties and symbolic monuments but also to immerse yourself in an experience all round in the vitality of the city – declares Councilor Antonio Bressa. It is an investment that will bring important repercussions in economic terms starting from the hotel, public establishments and trade sectors of the historic center and that gives the sense of direction that we have strongly undertaken for the tourism development of Padua. “
The starting point of the various activities promoted by the Municipality of Padua was the restyling of the portal www.turismopadova.it which focuses on the historic center of the city but which also promotes and allows access to large parts of the province. The portal, created on the initiative of the Municipality of Padua, Department of Culture and Tourism and the Chamber of Commerce, informs and convinces the potential visitor and tourist by acting as a territorial marketing tool. It is an interactive online medium that allows tourists to interact, offering inputs and generating requests, offering contacts and facilitating hotel reservations but not only, including museums, theatrical performances and even means of transport. It is therefore a fundamental tool available to all tour operators in the area, capable of enhancing their product and their offers. The tourist, guided towards his choice of travel, obtains complete information on the attractions, events, offers of operators and the experiences that can be done in the city and in the reference area and is guided with simple tools through a few “clicks. ”At the end of the booking process.
The portal, which has a clean and elegant graphic design, will be constantly updated with the inclusion of exhibitions and events that take place in the city and province, as well as in the offer of accommodation and catering facilities and will “anticipate” the large exhibitions allowing to enormously widen the potential basin of visitors.
A complementary and equally innovative tool that visitors to Padua can use is the Padova Urbs picta card, a single ticket that allows entry to the sites of the serial site “The frescoed cycles of the 14th century in Padua” World Heritage Site UNESCO. Available in both physical and digital format and therefore downloadable on smartphone, the card will guarantee entry to the following sites: Scrovegni Chapel, Palazzo della Ragione, San Michele Oratory, Church of SS. Filippo and Giacomo at the Eremitani, San Giorgio Oratory, Basilica del Santo, Chapel of the Carrarese Palace, Baptistery of the Cathedral.
The Paduan tourist offer, also by virtue of these initiatives, is increasingly differentiating, both in terms of duration and, above all, in terms of content: the stays of tourists in the Venetian city are characterized by multiple and increasingly articulated reasons , with a growing weight of cultural ones. Added to this are the opportunities and challenges posed by the web, which affects the structure of the market and offers new channels to reach customers with highly diversified needs. The number of tourists who visit the city of Padua and its main sites of interest is constantly increasing and even in recent years, characterized by the health emergency, the overall figure of Italian and foreign presences in Padua in the sector of attractiveness: 2022, in terms of presences updated to April, denotes a trend in marked improvement compared to the previous year with incremental values, in the first 4 months equal to + 128% Compared to the record data of 2019, the first three months, still a slight decrease, but already in April 2022, with 154,770 admissions, the record values of 2019 (153,040) were exceeded.
Interest in important sites from an artistic and cultural point of view also recorded strong growth: the data updated to the month of May indicate 35,839 admissions to the Eremitani Civic Museums and the Scrovegni Chapel and 14,431 to the Palazzo della Ragione, with a percentage increase compared to 2021 equal to 260 and 267% respectively, with absolute values very close to the record ones recorded in 2019. Arrivals and presences mainly concerned Italian tourists, particularly numerous in May and June and increased compared to the year In addition, in the month of June, in conjunction with the launch of the tourism promotion campaign, 30 thousand visits to our destination site were made. 20% of users) but also from Romans and Bolognese.
Great attention is also shown by the Paduan people who represent 11% of the site’s users.
One user out of 4 focuses on the contents of the homepage, then searches for news on “visit Padua / Urbs Picta” and then “visit the historic center” and more than half those who remain on the site for a minute or more.
