In Florence the first nudging experimentation on tourism

Florence historic city center is one of the 6 pilot sites of Herit-Data project (co-financed by Interreg MED program) and it is the only pilot in which a nudging experimentation on tourism was tested so far. The mentioned experimentation was managed and/or supported by our Foundation, Tuscany Region, Disit Lab (as local partners), by the French partner AVITEM, and with the fundamental collaboration and support of the Municipality of Florence.

About nudging, it is a way to “suggest” or “orient” behaviours, to obtain benefits for everyone. Without entering into much details, we are linking here an article from AVITEM that explores how behavioural science and measures based on behavioural insights can be used to address some of the most urgent challenges of the tourism sector, following the more and more applications of such methodology into the behavioural sciences world.

Going back to the experimentation, AVITEM hired experts on nudging topic, The Behavioural Insights Team together with two designers from Canel Averna, and a three-day workshop (5th – 7th July 2021) was organized in Florence, in Piazza della Stazione. Targeted local stakeholders with great experience in tourism sector were invited, with the goal to deepen the tourism flow management through new tools, ideas and solutions, especially for those areas at great risk and that are the core of Herit-Data project (historic city centres and area with natural/archaeological interests).
The workshop was developed following a co-design and co-creation workshop, meaning that both local stakeholders, project partners and BIT and Canel Averna teams worked together to collect information on tourists’ behaviours, also by doing field works (observation of the most crowded
areas of the city centre and how reality looks like). Quick brainstorming sessions followed, where best ideas on how to remove barriers and how trigger new behavioural levers were evaluated and classified according to their real feasibility. Working groups focussed on what were chosen as the
best ideas and developed a plan on how to intervene in such specific context and to put in place such solution. Working groups were paused presentations and moments of discussion all together, to increase the dialog and reflections on tourism and common behaviours topics. The type of approach and methodology adopted were considered by the participants innovative and produced general satisfaction.

The stakeholders attending to the workshop were from the following entities:

• Municipality of Florence (staff from Assessorship and Tourist promotion Office,
  FeelFlorence, Infopint, Infromation Systems Department, Unesco office, Major’s
  communication office)
• Metropolitan City of Florence (staff from Tourism, Infopoint and Communication office)
• Centre for tourism studies
• Destination Florence FCVB
• Irpet
• University of Florence
• Mus.e Association in Florence

Here below a picture taken during the event.