Getting to Know Milan-An exclusive interview with Franco D’Alfonso, Deputy Mayor for Commerce, Tourism, and City Marketing of Milan

Q & A

Q = World Tourism Cities

A = Franco D’Alfonso

Q: As an international event, the success of World Expo is closely related with a city’s comprehensive strength. As the World Expo is approaching, we would like to know how the preparation work is going on? What are the features of this Expo? What kind of Milan or Italy will Milan World Expo show to the world ?

A: Preparation work for Expo 2015 is going on at a very fast pace. We really hope everything will be ready for May 1st, in spite of all the difficulties associated with such a huge world exhibition size and with the number of countries involved. Workers have been doing night shifts for months now and progress is really surprising. As you know the theme of this Expo is “Feeding the Planet – Energy for life”. It is a vast theme of primary importance in today’s world, where a large proportion of the global population suffers from lack of food security and of food safety. Economic development must perforce face these problems and solve them. Progress must be sustainable and shared fairly throughout the globe. Water supply is critical in many countries. Technology must help in facing all these great challenges. The goal must not be merely profit but a new and better future for all the peoples of the world. Milan will be on show as the place where the Expo is being held and will represent the whole of Italy. Together we will showcase both a centuries-old food culture famous throughout the world for its healthiness and quality (Chinese and Italian cuisinesare probably the oldest and most celebrated in the world), and all the innovations and developments that Italian research has been able to bring both in fields of food production and of quality nutrition. Of course our best products will be on show as well as our best food brands. And much of this production is actually thought out and based in Milan which, as you certainly know, is Italy’s most important city when it comes to innovation, business, and lifestyle. It is only fitting that Milan should represent Italy in these areas, as it really is the center where the greater part of these developments, even when it comes to food and nutrition, actually take place. From a different –and lighter – point of view, Milan will also be there for every visitor as the single Italian city where you can find Italian restaurants catering for all the different regional Italian cuisines (which are really different from one another, and should all be experimented by the gourmet visitor). Not only that, it is also the Italian city with the greatest variety of restaurants from foreign countries. So it really is a fitting location for an Expo on nutrition. We hope Milan will show to the world all this and the more than 17，000 events that will be held outside the Expo site, within the City. We shall certainly provide visitors with some really significant attractions.

Q: We believe many Chinese tourists will come to visit Milan during the Expo. Has Milan made any preparation for the reception of Chinese tourists? For example, do you provide any language support like Chinese-speakingvolunteers, Chinese signposts, maps or introductions, or any other services for them? How many Chinese tourists will visit Milan during the Expo according to prediction?

A: Chinese tourists have been coming to Milan in great numbers. In 2013 we counted almost 200,000 Chinese arrivals, which made China our second most important incoming market after Russia. We estimate a 15% growth in 2014, we don’t have the final figures yet. We know for certain tourism from China will continue to grow in the future – not only in Italy but in the whole of Europe. Milan is a very attractive city for Chinese tourists as, obviously, it is a very famous shopping destination, famous for elegance and flair. It is also the capital of Italian design and home to two of the most famous soccer teams in the world, Inter Milan and A.C. Milan. It boasts very important cultural attractions, starting from La Scala. It is both an art city (as most Italian cities are) and a modern, vibrant city that is very much alive. It has a very strong brand abroad. The Chinese are also taking a great interest in Expo 2015 as the last Expo was held in Shanghai and was a great success. So we have this link as well. Much can be done to improve the Chinese visitor experience in Milan, but we feel we have done some important things. To begin with, we have made available on our tourist website (www.tourism.milan.it) a downloadable guide to Milan in Chinese, with 13 thematic itineraries and a wealth of information about the city. We believe it is a very useful tool for the individual visitor and can be easily stored on one’s smartphone or tablet. Then you will see around the city, especially in the central area, a large number of dark grey rectangular panels, with the red stripe of the city brand. There are 289 of these and each one highlights an important landmark or tourist attraction in Milan. The explanatory texts are in Italian and English, but if you point your smartphone toward the QR code each of the panels is provided with, you will discover the contents are available in Chinese as well as in other 6 languages. This means that any Chinese tourist can visit the city on his own and discover in his language detailed information on most of the meaningful sights he can come across. We believe this to be a state-of-the-art solution, making the city a lot easier to access. We are also developing an e-book in Chinese on Milan’s 100 most important sights, based on the panel system I have described. All this has been done with Expo in mind, but will remain after the event as a permanent feature of Milan in its relationship with tourists. As for the number of arrivals from China during Expo 2015, this has been estimated as 1 million. This might be a very optimistic estimate, but we have been told ticket sales in China are going well. There will be many Chinese tourists, that’s for sure. We have not, though, thought of specific approaches to Chinese tourists as distinct from tourists coming from other countries. We couldn’t possibly - it would be beyond our means – think of different strategies for each important incoming market. We also believe that tourists, wherever they come from, should in part adapt to life as it is lived in the country of destination, especially when we are talking about Milan. After all that is what makes travelling interesting. We know that local operators, especially hotels, are more and more familiar with the expectations of Chinese visitors, sometimes have Chinese experts and personnel working for them, so we believe we’ll be fine in this respect.

Q: It is known that Milan is an important tourism city in Italy and a key transport hub of Europe which is famous for its scenery, fashion, and architecture. Besides, Milan is also home to rich cultural relics and heritage as well as traditional opera. Since Milan has made striking achievements, what are the development goals of Milan in the future? What kind of new measures will Milan take to achieve the goals ?

A: Milan is indeed an important tourism city in Italy, as it has been adding to its traditional business oriented tourism a growing number of leisure visitors and an increasing number of important international congresses and conventions. The number of visitors has been growing steadily in the past few years, by an average of 4% a year, and this in times of great economic stress, for Italy as for many other areas of the world. More than a half of Milan’s visitors come from abroad, which shows how international Milan’s outlook is. The growth of leisure tourism points out to one basic truth. Even if Milan might not be mistaken for Rome, Venice or Florence, it is all the same a great Italian city of art, housing an impressive amount of Italy’s cultural and artistic heritage in its palaces, churches, and museums. It is also, as I have said before, Italy’s most dynamic and important city, the place where new things start and develop. So it is a city both of the past and of the future. Our development goal is to show the whole world, thanks to the Expo, the reality of Milan’s attractiveness, which is not fully understood yet – especially in Italy itself. Many still see Milan as a city of warehouses, finance, hard work and no fun. It is a wrong image: Milan is a lot more, as I have been saying: it is the ideal tourist destination as it puts together Italy’s tradition with its modernity and innovation. Consider that the average tourist stay in Milan is two nights. Our goal is certainly to increase this number. We would like everybody – after Expo – to understand that Milano is well deserving of longer visits. Our quick guide in Chinese will show you that it takes a lot more than two days to barely see the essential things in Milan. As Chinese tourism quickly becomes more individual and more in-depth, we hope it will choose longer stays, in order to really get to know our city. This is true for all tourists, from all countries: Milan is not just the Duomo and Leonardo da Vinci’s Last Supper (which is actually difficult to visit): it is many important museums, a large number of spectacular churches, state-of-the-art buildings, exhibitions of all sorts and a lot of venues for good food and fun. Expo will have to show to the world how welcoming and inclusive Milan is, and how good a choice for a visit to Italy it can be. Consider that, as you recalled in your question, Milan is a key European transport hub, with three airports and very important rail links. This means that our city is the ideal gateway to the whole of Italy, and especially to its northern part, which includes a large number of stunningly beautiful cities of art – Como, Cremona, Mantua, Bergamo, to name just a few, and of the most famous. But with high speed train you can easily reach Turin, Florence, Venice – even Rome - quite easily. So really, staying in Milan puts Italy within your reach. The whole of our preparation for Expo goes in this direction. This is what we are getting ready for.

Q: Proposed by Chinese President Xi Jinping, the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road initiatives, also known as "One Belt, One Road", have drawn great attention from the international society and won great support from countries and cities concerned. As an important city of Italy, which is an important country along the Belt， what does Milan think of the “One Belt, One Road”global cooperation and the role Milan plays in the cooperation? What prospects will "One Belt, One Road" initiatives bring for Milan?

A: Milan welcomes all initiatives promoting proximity between Asia and Europe, both for the strengthening of economic partnerships and for an improved understanding of peoples and their cultures.\

Q: What advantages does Milan value when it joined WTCF? What kind of opportunities and benefits will WTCF as a platform bring to Milan? Could you talk about it specifically? What role will Milan play in WTCF?

A: Milan joined the WTCF following our Mayor’s visit to China in 2013. We value our partnership with WTCF very much as it provides us with an important opportunity to increase our knowledge of other important cities throughout the world that have tourism as one of their key interests. We believe that true progress, in most fields, can be reached by cooperation between major cities that have common interests and goals. Association to the WTCF also allows for a privileged outlook on China and some of its major cities. We all know China, thanks to its impressive economic development and to the sheer number of its citizens, will play a crucial role in tourism throughout the world in the near future. So it is important to have friends there, who can give good advice. WTCF provides us with important insider knowledge. The WTCF’s website already contains a section dedicated to Milan in English and in Chinese. We are now working to provide material on the city and to keep it updated in order to make it an important promotional vehicle, both in China and elsewhere. Other forms of cooperation can be worked out in the future, if these are reciprocally considered useful and profitable. I was at the WTCF’s Summit in Beijing last September and it was a very positive experience. I had the chance to meet a lot of officials from other cities: out of reciprocal knowledge, good things come. So I would say that the WTCF is in itself a very good idea and that we look forward to doing things with the WTCF in the future.