Culture matches with employment and standard of living. Marketing del territorio
Image credit: Marketing Del Territorio
1st July 2018 communications / territory management / tourism development
Press release the report “Io sono cultura” 2018 has been submitted: positive signs in employment and tourism field stand out. reads Emanuele Franzoso in Marketing Del Territorio
Quality and beauty of Italy cope with the crisis
“Discussion about culture means talking about cultural and creative industries, and therefore, as the data presented in the annual Symbola report shows, it implies talking about occupation, resources, and quality of life". That was stated by the Minister of Heritage and Cultural Activities and Tourism, Alberto Bonisoli, taking the floor at the conference “Io sono cultura – l’Italia della qualità e della bellezza sfida la crisi" 2018, jointly called by Fondazione Symbola and Unioncamere.
In Italy, there are 414,701 firms (6.7% of the total economic activities of the country) ascribable within the cultural and creative productive system which is divided into: creative industries, cultural heritage ( historical, artistic...), performing arts, visual arts and creative-driven enterprises. In short, all assets that produce cultural goods, services and those that shall use culture as an input to swell the symbolic value of brands, therefore their competitiveness.
This year's data presented in Rome on June 21st are positive: the cultural and creative productive system (enterprises, PA and no- profit) generates over 92 billion euros no counting the benefit collected by the other sectors of the economy - tourism first - put at some EUR 255 and a half billion, revised to 16,6% of gross national value added. It is estimated that more than a third of domestic tourism spending (38.1%) stems from culture and creativity. What about employment? The answer is equally encouraging: 1.520.000 million employed in the cultural and creative system equal to 6.1% of labour in Italy, up to 1.6% more compared to 2017.
The female-driven economy is on the rise: 52,297 businesses, equal to 18% of the enterprises of the Core Cultura, an increase of 0.3% compared to 2016. More than one female firm out of two focuses on publishing (53,9%), followed by communications field (18.6%). With regards to young-run-undertakings is 7,7% overall (39.6% in publishing, 18.7% in communications). Having a minor impact but not negligible those headed by foreigner entrepreneurs (3.8% of the total) up by 2,7% compared to 2016.
Employment opportunity in the field of culture - the minister, continued - is and is growing. It is not trivial that it targets explicitly postgraduate young people. That is even more connected in a forward-looking perspective considering that the creative jobs and human expertise will be even more harnessed in a context where robotics and artificial intelligence can hardly be substituted for man. Public resources must strictly support cultural industry, less developed than the creative one, but equally important as evidenced by the perceptible income generated by the sector. The slightly tick up in recent years has been driven by exports, mainly consisting of products from the creative industry, and by incoming tourism, due primarily to cultural inferences. The quality of life - the minister, concluded - can and must improve thanks to the development of the cultural sector, mostly in towns of Italy with a widespread heritage outside to mainstream tourist flows."
At the eighth edition, the study carried out with the collaboration and support of the Marche Region, confirms, through figures and stories, that culture is one of the engines of our economy. It is achieved thanks to the contribution of about 40 leading industry bodies, to the partnership with Fondazione Fitzcarraldo and Si.Camera and under the patronage of the Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities and Tourism.
"Culture and creativity are known to be factors in growth, the keystone in all the productive sectors of Italy that makes Italy - comments Ermete Realacci, president of the Fondazione Symbola - and their role in the economy grows. According to a survey by US News magazine and the University of Pennsylvania, we are even the world leader affecting for cultural influence. A record also tied to our ability to convey culture and beauty through our production and our vital role upon soft-power capacity in foreign policy. It is precisely this distinctive intertwining of Italy, between culture and manufacturing, social cohesion and innovation, competitiveness and sustainability, which is a legacy of the past but also it epitomises a key to the future ".
Without of course forgetting the past, even the painful one lived in the earthquake areas of central Italy. 2018 is the year dedicated by the European Commission to Cultural Heritage, and the allocation of resources is twofold: on one hand the use, over ten years of the entire 8 per thousand taxpayers' share paid to the State for the recovery of cultural heritage allocated to the quake debris areas. On the other hand, the additional resources guaranteed by the EU for the conservation and promotion of cultural heritage.
The sitting president of Unioncamere Ivan Lo Bello has stressed the need to overcome the belief that culture "is above all something to be preserved rather than a component of development of production in open economies on which to focus", bearing in mind the change that's happening in terms of skills needed, e.g. in the context of Industry 4.0.
Care about Culture: A life of purpose, meaning and direction quote and image by Rosanna Marani
“Culture is the diaphragm that separates good from evil. Good or goodness comes from beauty and beauty is ethical in itself. Life as a good deed, a masterpiece of man and sacred in its significance, ought to be the result of sensitivity taken from culture, that is a virtue, that is beauty, that is ethical.”
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