Salvatore Ianniello, India Representative of Italian national tourism promotion board, explained that concerted outreach was being undertaken to promote Italy as a desirable tourist destination. He was speaking at Cinemascapes 2017, held recently in Mumbai.
Salvatore Ianniello explained his association with the Indian film industry, sharing that the Italian experience of the Indian market commenced back to 2007, when he was able to convince the tourist board to take stock of the opportunities available in India and put in the tools needed to promote Italian destinations. An agreement was signed between Yashraj Films and Italian Tourist Promotion Board to bring in Italy as a part of the movie – Bachna Ae Haseeno’ – which was followed by a couple of other projects in the next year.
He said that allocation of public resources (Italian Tourist Board is backed by the exchequer) for promoting destinations through Bollywood entailed a risk factor as the fate of the movie was unknown and the investment was at risk. He, however, expressed satisfaction over board’s involvement with the Bollywood, saying that setting a sum for such initiatives aside, a number of tour operators had also been roped in the process, through which movies were promoted collectively before their release. He shared that the outcomes of such initiatives had been positive.
Salvatore Ianniello also informed that the Italian government had recently passed a tax credit worth 110 million Euros for the next two years in a bid to attract cinema shooting in to the country.
