MTB, Climbing and much more in Finale Ligure

Some months ago I had a chat with Claudio Casanova, Councilor for Tourism, Sport and Culture of Finale Ligure, Italy. Finale is a small village of about 11.000 inhabitants, visited every year by approximately 800 000 tourists.

It is located in North-West Italy, on the sea. Just few years ago the number of visitors was 600 000 per year. The – still promising – increase finds its roots in the sport vocation of Finale. More than just a sea&sun destination, the charming village hosts all year long thousands of sportspersons, to the point that they now represent an incidence of up to the 30% of the arrivals. And, needless to say, this figure is of paramount importance in terms of season-adjust. Climbers and riders are far more winter-friendly than sun-bathers.

Claudio Casanova offered me a full overview of sport in Finale, having in mind not just well known tourist products but the benefits of the promotion of sport at local level more in general.

 
The Councilor recalled that among the institutional sports the nation-wide most popular, football, is represented by the FBC Finalese.

Then there is the Polispostiva (http://www.polisportivadelfinale.it/) with highly successful sectors such as both male and female volleyball, martial arts, just to name a few. The volleyball and martial arts championships played in Finale bring both active and passive sports tourists. A good number of spectators, friends, family etc. play their role in making these events enjoyable and bring life to the village in seasons when normally not too many visitors are around.

Narrowing the conversation to tourism products, two sport vocations of the territory have a very significant tourist impact, and turned into mature tourism products: climbing and MTB.

As far as climbing is concerned, 2018 marked the fiftieth anniversary since the first route was opened in Finale. A film entitled "Vie del Finalese" was presented at an event in Trento just before our little chat. The last 5 decades saw the number and the quality of routes multiply to the extent that now Finale offers literally thousands of options.

As for mountain biking, the sector was brought to life some twenty years ago by the initiative of members of the hotel association and MTB lovers. There are now two big events that open and close the Finale holiday season, the 24h MTB Race in May/early June and the EWS, in October.

The role of the Administration in this context is to contribute and provide assistance to the initiatives of the rich network of sports associations present on the territory. This support takes different forms: agreements, facilitation, founding,  coordinated strategies and communication.

It would be reductive to give an overall assessment of the impact of sport tourism in Finale relying just on the sheer quantity of sportsperson-visitors. Other aspects have to be considered, as well. First of all, employment. The good functioning of a quality tourism-sport offer requires services and professionalism that just the local skilled workers can fully provide. By that I mean MTB hotels, guides, specialized shops, etc. that are widespread in Finale.