Project type                                                             Governance method

Promoter                                                                  City of Genoa

Start date                                                                 2012

Funding                                                                    Public

The City of Genoa (595.000 inhabitants) implemented the City Tax Management System in 2012, on agreement between the City Council and the Chamber of Commerce on behalf of the tourism sector. The City Tax is a way to improve marketing, communication and branding strategies, as well as hospitality services such as the Tourism Information Centres in the city.

The City of Genoa created a City Tax Working Group (CTWG) in order to define and implement strategies with the aim of promoting the city using the tax resources. The CTWG is coordinated by the Deputy Mayor for Tourism and Culture and it is composed by members of the Chamber of Commerce, hotel owner associations and other tourism stakeholders.

The implementation of the City Tax in Genoa offers solutions to potential conflicts between public and private sectors, such as coordination of marketing, communication and media, the effective coordination of different municipal departments in charge of road services, public transport, mobility, support the implementation of new services, share strategies and actions, and a strong involvement of local press and media.

The CTWG has encouraged citizen participation in order to enhance the feeling of belonging to the city. In addition, citizens and other sectors can propose public service improvement to be done in the city with the tourism tax resources. It is a way to support a resilient and sustainable growth of tourism.

• Positive effect on relations and cooperation between government, stakeholders and citizens
• Tourism is now an important part of the city governance
• Economic impact:

2 million bed nights in 2016
491.360.000 € in 2016

• Internationalisation of tourism: 51,48%
• 25% increase in bed nights in 4 years
• Number of tourists visiting Tourist Information Centres: Increase of 29% from 2015 to 2016
• Time spent in Genoa: Increase from 1.98 to 2.3 days from 2012 until 2016
• ~ 1.500 new jobs in 5 years
• Improvement of city brand visibility, positioning and reputation