Walking among clouds ("A piedi fra le nuvole")

Best Practice

Topics

• Mobility
• Protected areas

Short description

The project consists in limiting, on Sundays in summer, access by private cars to the last stretch of the road running up from the Lake Serrù dam (2,200 metres) to Colle del Nivolet (2,612 metres) in the Gran Paradiso Natural Reserve. This is in line with regulating the use of parking lots and with the creation of public shuttle bus services aimed at guaranteeing tourist access to the hill.

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Participants

Gran Paradiso Natural Reserve,Turin Regional Authorities, Valle d’Aosta Autonomous Region, Municipalities of Ceresole Reale and Valsavarenche. The Ente Parco Nazionale is the promoter of the project, which is financed within the framework of an agreement with the Piedmont Region. The Turin Regional Authorities provide the signposting and road management and contributes towards covering the costs of the transport service (supplied by the Gruppo Trasporti Torinesi). Restaurant and shop owners are also involved and take part in the communication campaigns and in organising events. Welcoming guides provide information to all tourists.

Objectives

To preserve and enhance the scenic and naturalistic wealth already present, promote integrated environmental planning, reduce motor traffic, guarantee environment friendly quality tourism.

Activities

- Road regulation: on feast days in summer no thoroughfare is allowed from 9:00 to 18:00 along the stretch running from the Lake Serrù dam and Colle Nivolet; permission to descend is allowed from 13:00 on to vehicles which had driven up before 9:00; - Parking regulation: A parking lot for 200 cars has been constructed at Lake Serrù. When the parking lot is full, vehicles must park in other parking spaces further down. - Shuttle service. During 2005 the service covered both the stretch closet to private traffic (about 6 km between Lake Serrù and Nivolet) and connections with the lower valley centres (Pont Canavese and Ceresole Reale) and with Ivrea and Turin. - Activities aimed at sensitising the public and communicating access information: a press office expressly for the project. - Planning of events to entertain and involve tourists (concerts, shows, events for children).

Results

The maximum number of cars parked near Colle del Nivolet, decreased to 72 (an 85% reduction) as compared to 485 in 1993 and 458 in 1997, (years during which the limiting of private cars was not in force). Regulation has not reduced the tourist flow: during the July and August holidays in 2003 the shuttles carried more than 2800 people, the number reaching 4869 in 2004 and 4443 in 2005, in spite of 4 Sundays out of 9 being rainy this year. On an average 49% of the visitors to the area came for the first time, intrigued by a tourist offer directed to rediscovering the landscape and the environment, once more restored to its natural peace.

Evaluation

Every Sunday a questionnaire was handed to the shuttle users to find out how they liked the initiative. 44% of the questionnaires, meaning 1964 answers, were returned. The main results were the following: - 74.3% of those interviewed came from Piedmont, 17.1% from Lombardy, the remaining 8.6% from the various other Italian regions. In the 1993 questionnaire results 85% of the visitors came from Piedmont. - 48.9% of those interviewed had already been to Nivolet, while for the remaining 49.7% it was their first visit. In the 1993 questionnaire results 74% were regular users while for 26% it was their first visit to the area. - of those who said they knew of the initiative, 19.4% had learned of it from friends and acquaintances; 12.1% from the brochures handed out; 5% from the radio or television; another 14.1% from the press; 3.3% from internet; - opinions on the shuttle service: 83.9% excellent, 12% fair, 1.8% insufficient; - opinions on the events and organised shows: 89% favourable; 3.6% to be improved; - 96.2% thinks the initiative should be repeated in the future, and of these 24% is in favour of extending the regulated period.

Difficulties

Fears that the attractive value of the area might be lessened represented a difficulty which was overcome through a patient effort of sensitising and obtaining agreement.

Budget

90.000 euro per year (Euro)

Financial backer

The press office, campaign planning and the production of illustrative material amounted to a cost of 90.000 euro per year. Proceeds from the shuttle service (the ticket cost from 1,5 to 2,5 euro according to the starting point) do not yet completely cover the costs, which are settled by the Turin Regional Authorities.

Source of information

Competition

Participant at the 2005 Future in the Alps competition

Homepage

http://www.pngp.it/ita/nivolet/index.html http://www.provincia.torino.it/speciali/nivolet/itinerari.htm

Project executive as above

Contact person as above

Comments

Impact on nature and environment

Before the project was established, the impact which the arrival and parking of cars had on the flora and fauna of Colle Nivolet had been assessed (up to 500 cars parked on feast days before the project set up)

Economic value added

The project contributes to improving the sustainable tourist image of the area concerned by offering more suitable environmental quality and sustainable accessibility services.

Good governance

The project implied the patient composition of constraints due to the different requirements of the involved subjects (motorized tourists, services suppliers, traders, etc.).

PR impact

Press office, mentions and articles on the specialised press, web sites. Some details: distribution of 50.000 copies of an informative leaflet in about 250 centres in North Italy Press campaign results: Distribution 2003 2004 2005 National press 12 20 22 Local press 56 67 75 Web publications 30 59 58 Radio and TV 70 186 260 TOTAL 168 332 417 Totally covered by the main local papers, the main Italian specialised dailies and magazines, such as Airone, Alp, Qui Touring, Viaggi, Viaggi&Sapori, La Rivista della Montagna, Bell’Italia, Plein Air, Panorama, Week end Viaggi, as well as weeklies of great circulation, for example, Grazia and Il Venerdì of Repubblica