Italy wants to double tourism in 10 years

Prime minister says ‘tragedy of Naples’ has damaged country’s image By Lisa M. Novak, Stars and Stripes European edition, Sunday, July 6, 2008 If you think the tourist sites in Italy are crowded this summer, enjoy the relative "tranquility" while it lasts. Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said he wants to double the number of visitors to the country over the next 10 years, according to Italian press agency ANSA. "Our tourism does not appear to be on par, commercially speaking, with our potential, what we could do in the world,’’ Berlusconi said during a press conference last week. He also discussed a plan to create a national tourism command center, and possibly reduce the value added tax to 7 percent, according to ANSA. Over the past few years, some of Italy’s tourism indicators have declined, according to statistics... [read full story]