Last mothI visited the United States on official business. I went to both Los Angeles and San Diego to promote The Dream of Rome, a campaign design to reinforce the image if Italy’s capital among the American public and with US culture industry. I was able to establish closer contact with some of the most prestigious business oriented museums there. It was a very successful trip in terms of strengthening our city’s brand image at international level. It was also an important part of the combined plan of action we have been carrying forward for number of years and that is beginning to produce results in the form of a continuous increase in the volume of tourism to Rome. Numbers are rising steadily, up 10% in 2011 and up 5% in the first half of this year.
My trip to the United States was an opportunity to act as an ambassador and promoter of our enormous heritage of art, history and culture and to invite American entertainment industry managers and patrons of the arts to invest in Rome to safeguard and restore our monuments, as was the case with the Colosseum. Lastly, I was able to illustrate the full future to the film industry, aimed at producers who chose Rome as their film set.
Mayor of Rome
Gianni Alemanno