Activities of the Fondazione Romualdo Del Bianco® – Life Beyond Tourism®
The Fondazione Romualdo Del Bianco® – Life Beyond Tourism® was born in the aftermath of the fall of the Berlin Wall thanks to the initial intuition of Paolo Del Bianco, then a hotel entrepreneur, about the need to promote mutual knowledge among the countries of central and eastern Europe through contact with western Europe and the attraction the latter exerted. Since then, the Foundation has promoted meetings in Florence among young people from those countries for a total of over 150,000 days.
Thanks to this activity, today there are 500 institutions in 83 countries on the five continents that make up its international network.
Over the years, the Foundation has grown aware that it is in promoting mutual knowledge where the true meaning of the hotel activity (understood as hospitality offered by a place to its visitors) lies, activity from which it was born as a non-profit organisation committed to promoting cross-cultural dialogue.
This awareness was the starting point of the Foundation’s path towards the concept of Cultural Heritage as a potential tool for cross-cultural dialogue, though provided that, in addition to preservation and enhancement, its enjoyment is guaranteed for mutual knowledge and respect for diversity.
This led to the overthrowing of the concept of tourism (especially mass tourism) from a “threat” to heritage – if meant only in terms of services and consumption – to a strategic opportunity for dialogue between civilisations.
These are the steps taken so far by the Foundation to conceive the Life Beyond Tourism® orientation and the Non-Profit Cultural Portal (web 2.0), which constitutes its virtual platform for interpreting and communicating cultural expressions – cultural institutions and representative economic enterprises – of the different Territories, with a special focus on the visibility of the less known, and exchange of experiences and best practices, with the ultimate aim of replacing the concept itself of ‘tourism’ with that of ‘journey for the knowledge of values‘.
Life Beyond Tourism®Certification
We think that the reception goes beyond the sale of services.
We think that those who arrive are resources and not just customers.
The Movement Life Beyond Tourism® for Cross-cultural dialogue is born and develops to form a network that makes all this possible.
Tourist operators, artisans, restaurateurs, hoteliers, artists, and traders have a story to tell that goes beyond the chains of shops all the same, ready-made packages, and souvenirs that tell nothing about the trip. The traveller has the right to find unique cities that are not flattened by the same offer, in order to experience the wealth of culture, traditions and flavours that are the distinguishing features of each territory.
We have thus gathered our reflections and our principles in the 2008 and 2014 Life Beyond Tourism® Manifestos and created a certification for the Management System for Dialogue among Cultures to provide ourselves with solid tools that are the result of our experience.
We share this path,
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