Southern Italy still Struggles to Be Welcoming to Entrepreneurs

Filed under: Travel — italyforbeginners March 17, 2007 @ 11:43 am

The Verdura Golf & Spa Resort Sicily is a beautiful land with breathtaking views, great cultural heritage and traditions, but it turns out to be a hell for investors that come from outside. Lately, things appeared to have taken a different path: new foreign investments raised national attention thanks to the state financed project Sviluppo Italia.

Rocco Forte Hotels’ web site reads: “Rocco Forte Hotels is currently building a €129 million hotel and golf resort on the southern coast of Sicily in a small village called Verdura, near Sciacca, about an hour’s drive from the international airport in Palermo and 30 kilometres from Agrigento and the Valley of the Temples.
The development, involving the restoration of several existing buildings on the site together with new construction, which will reflect the history and character of Sicily and the region, will consist of a 200-room ocean-view hotel, two championship golf courses, a hydrotherapy spa, sports facilities and a relatively large real estate development. The architect is Denton Corker Marshall. The Verdura Golf & Spa Resort is currently scheduled to open in 2008″.

As matter of fact, the Verdura Golf & Spa Resort was scheduled to open in December 2006, but this date has been postponed more than once. Aeroviaggi, an Italian tour operator, is having a similar experience in Geraci and, most likely, will give up the idea of building a resort in the area.

Both companies have been facing an unusual amount of red tape that inevitably has put to a stop their businesses in the region. The municipalities fighting Rocco Forte Hotels and Aeroviaggi argue that the projects are not environmentally feasible. Public opinion in Sicily and Italy has become increasingly aware of environmental issues and suspicious of big corporations. It might easily be that both projects have not been presented to the local communities, but imposed. The problem is that it is taking too long to solve this entangled matters now, with the consequences that even a child can understand: 1) it is not good for Rocco Forte Hotels and Aeroviaggi; 2) it is not good for the image of Sicily since the region badly needs to attract investments; 3) it is extremely bad for the local economy. Basically, no jobs and no opportunities not even when they are offered directly at your doorstep.