root tourism

The Fantasy of Heritage Tourism

“Returning” to a place you’ve never been

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The first generation of immigrants wants to survive, the second wants to assimilate, and the third wants to remember, the sociologist Marcus Lee Hansen wrote in 1938. The fourth, fifth, and sixth? Apparently they now want to go on a luxury vacation to visit the Welsh coal mines their ancestors crossed an ocean to escape.

So-called heritage tourism has grown into its own travel category, like skiing and whale watching. In 2019, an Airbnb survey found that the share of people traveling to “trace their roots” worldwide had increased by 500 percent since 2014; the company announced that it was teaming up with 23andMe, the DNA-testing service, to meet this demand, offering trips to clients’ ancestral homelands. Ancestry, the company behind the family-search website, has partnered with a travel agency. The governments of Germany and Scotland have websites devoted to heritage tourism. Conde Nast Traveller is all over this trend . In Dublin, the Shelbourne Hotel’s “genealogy butler” can research your Irish side, if you so please. The Conte Club, a boutique travel service known for its focus on privacy and members-only jet rentals, will take you and your partner on a week-long “ DNA-mapped journey ” starting at $35,000 (flights not included). Should you wish to go very far back in time, the agency can make that happen. Rebecca Fielding, the CEO, told me about one client who was obsessed with the idea that he had descended from Genghis Khan. DNA tests can’t possibly prove a connection that old, Fielding said, but the Conte Club was happy to arrange his trip to Mongolia.

Kyle Betit, the genealogist who runs Ancestry’s travel business, told me that his clients experience something much more “personal” and “deep” than what’s available to “the typical tourist.” Ancestry genealogists can create bespoke itineraries tailored to a family’s history, down to the villages or even the streets where they once lived. The company’s most popular destinations were Italy and Ireland. In 2023, it took 44 individual clients or groups on such voyages. This year, it’s offering two genealogy cruises .

Read: What can you do with the world’s largest family tree?

Who takes such a trip? According to the Airbnb survey, Americans top the list, followed by Canadians and Australians. Those most likely to go are between the ages of 60 and 90—mainly retirees with cash to spare. Dave Richard Meyrick, whom Ancestry put me in touch with, is a representative example.

Meyrick is 73 and lives in Las Vegas, where he worked at the MGM Grand hotel and casino until his retirement. He recently came into a small fortune—not at the poker table, but after winning a lawsuit against the U.S. military. The Agent Orange that the Army sprayed over Vietnam when he was fighting there caused Meyrick to lose most of his eyesight years after he returned. The newly enriched man has no wife and no kids—“that I know of,” he told me, with a chuckle—so indulging in a decadent vacation was the logical course of action. The question was where to go.

He had recently been on an unremarkable cruise through the Gulf of Mexico when a free trial for Ancestry.com appeared on his screen in spring 2020. He learned that he was ninth in a line of Richard Meyricks. He found his paternal grandfather—who was born in Wales and fought for Canada in World War I—in mustard-gas records that might explain his grandpa’s weird cough. Meyrick had always assumed that his paternal grandmother’s ancestors were also from Wales; actually, they were German, from the medieval city of Heidelberg and the Alpine region of Bavaria.

Soon he got a promotional email from Ancestry: If he wanted to see where his father’s parents came from, the company was there to help. He replied, intrigued. Betit scheduled a video call. The team helped him book a trip to Germany, where his father’s ancestors were innkeepers on the grounds of a princely castle. The inn has been renovated, and is now the chic office of a finance firm. During a stop in Munich, Meyrick drank beer at Oktoberfest. He then went to Wales, where another branch of his father’s ancestors worked the mines and steel mills in a village that dates back to the 1600s.

He told me that the deterioration of his eyesight had changed his perception of traveling. He couldn’t see the sites or landscapes very well, but his genealogy helped him feel connected to the places he visited. At the Welsh church where his ancestors had been baptized, married, and buried, Meyrick met a local history buff, who told him a story. In the early 1700s, a villager with a habit of hiding behind stagecoaches to rob the wealthy messed with the wrong rich man, a big landowner, and was hanged. The historian was convinced that the unfortunate thief was among Meyrick’s ancestors. Could this fabulous connection be true? Ancestry’s genealogists weren’t able to confirm it, and Meyrick said that his source had seemed a little senile. Still, he assured me, the $50,000 trip was “money well spent.”

This year, he plans to do his mother’s side.

Heritage tourism may only be catching on among Americans now, but governments have been pushing it for decades.

After World War II, tourism was considered a major component of diplomacy. Marshall Plan funds were earmarked to build not just roads and city centers but also ski slopes and airports. The Eisenhower administration created the People-to-People Program, promoting international pen-pal networks and sporting events in hopes of uniting countries against the Soviet Union.

Europe welcomed America’s tourists, and tried to encourage more to come. Some hosted “homecomings”—festivals meant to lure the children and grandchildren of emigrants back to visit. Greece held one in 1951; Lebanon, in 1955; Sweden, in 1965–66. Ireland hosted annual homecomings starting in 1953. These campaigns were, in the words of the Swedish historian Adam Hjorthén, “the earliest coordinated attempts at adopting ancestry in the promotion of mass tourism.”

They were also a failure, as people didn’t go. The Irish homecoming— called An Tóstal , or “a gathering,” and sponsored by the founder of Pan Am Airways—went on for six years before a tourist-board report admitted that the word fiasco didn’t sufficiently convey how badly the effort had flopped.

For heritage tourism to take off, a few changes had to occur. First, plane tickets needed to get a lot cheaper. As the Pan Am founder, of all people, should have known, transatlantic flights then cost a lot of money—airfare from New York to London in 1950 was about $8,700 in today’s dollars . That year, only about one in 250 Americans went overseas at all. In 2019, at the pre-pandemic peak of traveling, this number was one in three .

Even if they had the money, travelers might not have chosen to spend it on connecting with their homelands. For a long time, genealogy struck many people in the United States as elitist. Most European settlers, the historian Russell Bidlack wrote , “had escaped from a society where the traditions of inheritance and caste had denied them opportunity for a better life.” Genealogy was for people obsessed with nobility, or for WASPs living off borrowed glory.

This began to change in the 1970s and ’80s, when genealogy became cool. The publication of Roots , Alex Haley’s 1976 novel about a seven-generation lineage, starting with a man sold into slavery in Gambia and ending with an American descendant not unlike the author, was a turning point. The book topped the New York Times best-seller list for more than five months and inspired two TV adaptations and eventually a whole genre of trace-your-ancestry reality shows. Genealogy was no longer just a hobby for pedigree-loving Europeans but became a tool for everyone, including marginalized groups, to understand their past.

Still, genealogy was hard work, at least until the advent of the internet in the 1990s made public records accessible and searchable. Infobases, a seller of floppy disks with genealogy databases catering to Mormons, who have a particular interest in the subject for theological reasons, purchased Ancestry, then a local publisher and magazine specializing in genealogy. Ancestry.com went online in 1996. By the mid-2010s, DNA testing was mainstream—packaged, commoditized. The tests convinced people that the connection they felt to the place of their ancestors was “really real,” as Naomi Leite, an anthropologist at SOAS University of London, put it to me. An American could now possess hard evidence that he was 12.5 percent Greek.

But when that American goes on a vacation to Santorini, what exactly is he hoping to find?

From the June 2016 issue: The false promise of DNA testing

Heritage is the name Americans give to the past when they realize they’ve already lost it. They want to claim it back. And when they finally go to these places where they had never been, travelers say they are “returning.”

This mode of traveling across space and time is ultimately a journey into the self—the reconstruction of a grand story that started long ago and ends with you. It provides order and meaning to travel that might otherwise seem arbitrary, while still providing plenty of choices: After all, the further you go into your family tree, the more branches you may have to pick from. Solène Prince, who studies heritage travel in Sweden, told me that people tend to focus on the lineage that they view as most “socially desirable”: “Americans and Canadians like to be Swedish,” she said. “It’s progressive.”

A segment of this industry targets Black Americans. Ghana, from which many enslaved Africans were sent to the New World, had its own homecoming— a “Year of Return”— for Africans in the diaspora in 2019. One and a half million people visited the continent that year, Ghana’s tourism department reported. But most heritage tourism tacitly serves white Americans. (Ancestry mentions Ghana in a list of possible Personal Heritage Journeys, but when I asked if anyone had taken advantage of that trip, a company spokesperson said not yet.)

Genealogy may be the product of painstaking research, but it’s also a fantasy, about who we are and who we’d like to be. Many Americans want to be something else: “Time and again, I have heard genealogists be very disappointed to learn that, in fact, they’re all white,” Jackie Hogan, the author of Roots Quest: Inside America’s Genealogy Boom , noted once in an interview . “If America is a melting pot, this is people wanting to unmelt it and find what makes them special,” Leite, the anthropologist, told me.

From the July/August 2018 issue: The weird, ever-evolving story of DNA

But even if white Americans think they want to be something other than white, when it comes time to travel, they mostly want to go to Europe. Fielding, of the Conte Club, told me that the top destinations for its DNA trips were all in Europe. Even when a DNA test uncovers ancestry outside this part of the world, clients tend to ignore it and “put their money where their comfort zone is”—meaning travel to the places they might have gone to anyway.

Reading testimonials from Ancestry travelers online, I got the impression that a big appeal of a heritage trip is marveling at how bad struggles were in remote places compared with the safety and comfort of present-day America. “I am grateful for them leaving and everything they went through, so we could have the life we have,” one traveler said after visiting the Italian sulfur mines where their grandparents once worked. “I think it made me appreciate not only them, but the sacrifices they had to go through so I could live comfortably here in the United States,” said another one who went to Ireland. There’s a hint of smug pride behind this gratitude exercise.

But at least one traveler came away with a more disquieting narrative, according to Joe Buggy, one of Ancestry’s genealogists. He had an American client who learned, while visiting his ancestors’ quaint little village, that everyone in town believed his grandfather had committed a murder there. They all thought he’d fled to Australia. Maybe that’s why Grandpa never talked about Ireland.

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Please note you do not have access to teaching notes, roots tourism: opportunities for the territories deriving from identity journeys of italian emigrants.

Tourism in the Mediterranean Sea

ISBN : 978-1-80043-901-6 , eISBN : 978-1-80043-900-9

Publication date: 1 March 2021

Roots tourism is an important tourism segment both quantitatively and qualitatively. However, unlike other countries such as Ireland and Scotland, in Italy the interest for this segment on the part of the institutions and the research world has so far been rather limited. Even the offer of services is not adequate and is not targeted. The chapter illustrates the main characteristics of the demand generated by roots tourists, their reasons to travel, their expectations, their preferences in terms of purchase and consumption behaviour. The phenomenon is analyzed from various points of view, not only of tourists but also of other stakeholders, including local government to understand the current and potential policies to encourage this form of tourism. Roots tourism is linked to other interesting tourism segments: retirement migration, lifestyle migration, second home and residential tourism. A comprehensive overview of marketing provides useful information for planning and implementing strategies aimed at developing travels of emigrants and their descendants to their homeland.

• Roots tourism
• Ancestral tourism
• Genealogical tourism
• Diaspora tourism
• Second home
• Residential tourism
• Retirement migration
• Lifestyle migration

Acknowledgements

Thanks to all interviewees for their contribution to the research project, especially to Josephine Gregoire and Ariadna Cabello Rendace.

Nicotera, T. (2021), "Roots Tourism: Opportunities for the Territories Deriving from Identity Journeys of Italian Emigrants", Grasso, F. and Sergi, B.S. (Ed.) Tourism in the Mediterranean Sea , Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 199-216. https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-80043-900-920211015

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Can roots tourism build social justice? A case study of travellers to Ghana provides insights

Assistant Professor. L. Robert Payne School of Hospitality and Tourism Management, Tourism RESET, San Diego State University

Disclosure statement

Alana Dillette does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

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Protests against racism have erupted around the globe in recent weeks, sparked by the murder of a black man, George Floyd, at the hands of a white police officer in Minnesota, in the United States. This act of racial violence serves as a timely reminder of the racial inequalities that persist for black people around the world, African diasporas being no exception.

In fact, Ghana, which has been a leader in connecting this diaspora to its African roots through tourism, commemorated the life of Floyd with a memorial service in Accra. The service was arranged by Ghana’s Year of Return committee, in partnership with the African Union of Diasporan Forum.

The Year of Return – 2019 – was a tourism campaign to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the first slave ship landing in America. It was an instance of “ roots tourism ”, which appeals to travellers to visit a destination on the basis of their ancestry.

Beyond the education and personal transformation that many travellers gain from this type of tourism, could it also be an opportunity for racial reconciliation?

My study of one recent group of African American roots travellers to Ghana suggests this may be a possibility. The study explored how the trip affected these travellers’ sense of identity and their commitment towards social justice initiatives.

Exploring roots in Ghana

In August 2018, I joined a group of 10 African American travellers on a 10-day trip to Ghana where we visited historical sights, as well as cities, villages and nature preserves. I interviewed the travellers before and after the trip, in addition to conducting observations and a focus group during the trip. I asked them about their expectations of the journey and how the experience had affected their identity. I also asked if it made them more likely to participate in social justice activities such as protesting, getting involved with social justice organisations in their communities and speaking up about social injustices in their professions.

Travellers revealed to me that the trip helped them to conceptualise slavery differently, and this led them to a deeper understanding of race relations in the United States. For example, one traveller said that prior to visiting Ghana, they felt a “certain anger towards white people”. But visiting Ghana and specifically the Cape Coast dungeon exposed them to learning more about all of the actors in slavery – (white) Europeans and (black) Africans.

Read more: Ghana hopes 'Year of Return' will boost tourism. But caution is needed

Travellers also shared how the trip helped them to understand more deeply their identity as both African and American. For example, one participant said:

I have these identifiable characteristics about me that link me to this place. I hope to go home and be able to exude that like a light off me, without being afraid or ashamed; we shouldn’t be fearful of who we really are.

This quote exemplifies how identity formation through roots travel can lead to a form of reconciliation within travellers themselves.

Another traveller said they realised after the trip that roots tourism, if curated well, could be an avenue for cross-racial communication and understanding. They said they had noticed a clear difference between white and black tour groups at the Cape Coast dungeon. One was more romanticised, and one highlighted more of the horrific details of slavery.

This traveller said the romanticised experience was common at many former slave plantation heritage tourism sites in the US. These types of narratives only perpetuate experiences reminiscent of the Jim Crow era. But if transformed, these experiences both in Ghana and the US could act as a platform for racial reconciliation.

One traveller described their own internal racial reconciliation by saying:

We are all human. I wish that we lived in a world that could really and truly embrace that, but we don’t. So, for now, I continue trying to spread the love and be unashamed about who I am, which is a mixture of so many things, some of which do originate in Africa, and I am proud of that now.

Making peace

These types of experiences through roots tourism represent an opportunity for the creation of peace and reconciliation. Travellers can learn together about the collective emotional trauma resultant from slavery, the misinformation that is often passed down about slavery and how these issues can be discussed openly.

Travel and tourism are not often linked to social justice. But the research shows that tourism does in fact provide a platform for this. Travellers in my study said their trip to Ghana empowered them to make changes towards social equity in their professional and personal lives. They described actionable change along with expanded mindsets. For example, one traveller mentioned getting involved with empowering black musicians in their community. Another started contributing financially to empower female business owners in Ghana.

Read more: Ghana's Year of Return 2019: traveler, tourist or pilgrim?

Roots travel experiences also shine a light on the continued everyday racism that people face as a trickle-down effect of slavery. Participants described how societal racism in the US had made an impact on their lives, and how travelling to Ghana had emboldened them to search for clarity of identity and self, as well as social equality.

The research already shows that tourism can promote peace, transformation and cross-cultural understanding. But it’s a good time to ask how the travel and tourism industry has contributed to racism and how that can change .

• Social justice
• Peacebuilding
• Year of return
• #slavery2021

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Multiple Identities: the Perception of the Root Tourist in the Host Communities

With the expression “Root Tourism”, one commonly intends the social phenomenon that leads emigrants and/or their descendents to return, frequently or occasionally, to their place of origin, on the basis of motivation linked, in a rather predominant way, to strengthen and/or to deepen one’s family identity (Perri, 2020). In this form of tourism, the decisive and absolutely dominating factor that drives the decision to make the journey is, therefore, connected to the knowledge and reconstruction of the person’s family history.

The recomposition of identity which is targeted through the roots journey, in the case of the traveler who is an emigranted first generation, see satisfaction in visit the physical, social and cultural spaces that are already known and experienced. When, however, a descendant of emigrants takes on this journey, such as a relative (children, grandchildren, etc.), that is a person ahead in the generational line, will find satisfaction, by visiting in places where one’s ancestors were from, where theese worked and lived, and where they’re buried, adding up the information acquired by consulting records useful in the reconstruction of their family tree, through experiential interviews with the local population (relatives, friends, etc.).

We define this type of travel experiences as “touristic”, as it is based on a temporary and non-instrumental stay, and on travelers who take on daily behaviors and visitation methods that essentially make them indistinguishable from other ranges of tourists (Romita and Perri, 2009), and where the absence of a daily relationship and physical presence renders the subjects as “other”, just as by definition all tourists are (Romita, 2021; Cohen, 1979), placing them in an alienating condition from the eyes of the local host community, which increases over time (Simmel, 1998; Schutz, 2013).

However, the very aims of the trip make the root tourist, as it is perhaps easily understandable, a rather particular type of tourist, almost unique. The load of expectations and the emotional intensity that accompany the departure, transit and arrival are experienced with anxiety, as the experience that will be created could also lead to not only the “simple” desired identity reconstruction, but also to perhaps a partial redefinition of one’s own family’s identity situation.

Whatever the case may be, the condition of alienation that we mentioned earlier belongs to all tourists, in the case of the root tourist, this alienation brings with it an identity that is the fruit of a flexible subjectivity. Identities develop and shape through everyday life and through the narration of family history linked to cultural origins. Therefore, identities, more or less hybrid or multiple, sometimes manifest in crises, as they are torn between the prevalent belonging to the original culture or to that of the places where one lives, or through languages resulting from a semantic compromise (between the original language and the acquired language), and which, from time to time, are defined through social relationships, the contingencies in which they find themselves and the consequent contaminations. People for whom the concept of “place” brings a constant redefinition to the notions of belonging, citizenship, frontier.

The specific condition of the root tourist’s alienation has significant repercussions in the perception that the local host communities have of this social figure. The results of over ten years of research dedicated to the study of tourism and the root tourist, which we will use to develop this work, brings to conclusion that what we call "root tourism" for the local host communities is only partly so, and that this perception depends on the process of breaking down the multiple identities of these travelers.

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License .

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• Tullio Romita, Antonella Perri, Family Storytelling and Local Development , Fuori Luogo Journal of Sociology of Territory, Tourism, Technology: Vol 13 No 3 (2022): Fuori Luogo Rivista di Sociologia del Territorio, Turismo, Tecnologia - Special Issue Place Branding
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Roots-IN 2024 Anno delle radici italiane nel mondo

Roots tourism international exchange iii° edizione turismo delle radici e made-in-italy 18-19 novembre 2024, due giorni di networking formazione e business matching dedicati al turismo di ritorno nella terra d'origine tra operatori turistici italiani e internazionali, roots tourism international exchange.

The first international trade event devoted to ancestry tourism

IInd EDITION: Matera | 20-21 November 2023 2-days networking and business matching event for National and International tourism trade professionals

2024, un’opportunità straordinaria per il turismo italiano e la promozione dell'incoming grazie al movimento di ritorno alla terra d’origine..

Roots-IN 2024, un’edizione speciale a coronamento di un anno dedicato al turismo delle radici .

Nell’anno delle radici italiane nel mondo sono tanti i progetti, le iniziative e gli eventi dei piccoli Comuni italiani ideati per attrarre sul proprio territorio i viaggiatori alla riscoperta delle radici famigliari.

Un potenziale di circa 80 milioni di italo-discendenti nel mondo, rappresentato dalle generazioni successive a chi, tra la fine del ‘800 e nel corso del ‘900, è emigrato dal nostro Paese.

We want to promote and facilitate the knowledge of roots tourism within Italian and international tour operators, with the aim of developing specific packaged tours leading back to the roots, with a specific offer in line with this type of travellers’ requests .

The 2nd, 3rd and 4th generations of Italians in the world visiting Italy are expecting a high emotional travel experience, because they are driven by the desire to get to know their places of origin, to regain possession of their family traditions and personal history.

Our Mission

Why participate, turismo delle radici e made-in-italy.

Il Made in Italy non riguarda solo le cose, ma anche le persone, quelle che hanno fatto grande l’Italia nel mondo. 

Proprio come Leonardo da Vinci, il cui uomo vitruviano, simbolo dell’arte rinascimentale, è stato scelto come logo per la Giornata Nazionale del Made in Italy, che ricorre il 15 aprile, anniversario della sua nascita. 

Sono tanti gli italiani che si sono distinti in tanti posti del mondo per il loro genio e la loro creatività, e proprio al Made in Italy è dedicata la terza edizione di Roots-IN.

Our audience

The opening conference is organized in cooperation with ENIT - Italian National Tourism Board and it is directed to travel trade stakeholders, local authorities and to anyone interested in learning more about ancestry tourism - more specifically this year to those wishing to develop local inner areas and small boroughs.

Our B2B workshop  targets Italian tourism industry  from hospitality to mobility , to business networks and incoming travel agencies and tour operators specialized in experiential tourism, who can get in touch with a selected audience of  international buyers , from Australia, Brazil, Argentina, Canada, Mexico, USA, UK, Europe.

Alongside with our B2B workshop we will host our ROOTS-in LAB , with speakers on stage to give quick insights, short talks about best practices, useful clues and tools to local travel trade operators.

La specificità del turista delle radici

È un viaggiatore interessato a  cogliere l’essenza dei luoghi che visita , spesso piccoli borghi e rotte meno battute dai grandi flussi, e che apprezza tutti gli aspetti culturali del territorio.

È emotivamente coinvolto e vuole  rafforzare il legame affettivo con il luogo di provenienza famigliare , a cui si sente di appartenere.

È quindi fondamentale considerare questi viaggiatori non come comuni turisti ma come  membri della comunità, ospiti speciali,  e sviluppare un sistema di accoglienza e di ospitalità specifica. 

L’obiettivo di Roots-IN è essere il punto di sintesi dei progetti e programmi mirati a questa tipologia di turismo e facilitare i contatti tra domanda e offerta tra operatori nazionali e internazionali. 

20 November

Una hotel matera, conferenza di apertura, forum e tavoli di lavoro con esperti di rilevanza nazionale e internazionale., attività di formazione, 21 november, incontri b2b, matching buyer internazionali - seller, occasioni di confronto, exhibition area, italy for roots tourism.

Exhibition stands from Italian regions, institutions, public bodies, associations, chambers of commerce, museums, universities, private firms. 20 e 21 novembre 9:30-18:00

Conference area

"roots tourism and borough regeneration".

Forum di apertura con rappresentanti istituzionali e esperti nazionali. November , 20th 9:30 am - 1 pm

ROOTS in LAB

Interactive labs in marketing, communication, technologies and research. The aim is to offer specific #rootstourism training to individuals and territories November, 20th from 2:30 pm to 6 pm November, 21st from 10 am to 6 pm

Workshop area

Workshop one-to-one meetings between buyers and sellers.

Buyers from Countries with a relevant Italian community meet Italian tourism trade with a pre-scheduled meeting agenda November, 20th from 3 to 6pm November, 21st from 10am to 6pm Appuntamenti di 15 minuti Coffee Break 21/11 dalle 11:30-12:00 Pausa pranzo 21/11 dalle 13:00-15:00

Il progetto

ROOTS in was born in Basilicata, one of the Italian regions with the highest XXth century emigration rate. We want to focus on this specific segment of tourists: curious and passionate travellers of Italian origin, driven by very deep motivations to explore their territories of origin, creating new virtuous connections .

The Basilicata Tourist Board – in cooperation with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation and ENIT, Italy National Tourist Board – is hosting the first edition of “Roots Tourism International Exchange”, a two-days event for the entire Travel Trade community and media specialised in ancestry tourism. The opening day is devoted to a panel discussion with Roots Tourism experts of national and international standing. The November 20th conference is open to all.

The second day is strictly a B2B opportunity of business matching and networking. Our workshop with international buyers and sellers from all over Italy is not restricted to the travel industry, but also addresses real estate, talent attraction, fundraising and other strategic sectors, with a focus on younger generations.

Roots-IN è un’occasione imperdibile per l’intera filiera dell’offerta turistica, per gli operatori della domanda e per i media specializzati, organizzata da APT – Agenzia di Promozione Territoriale Basilicata in cooperation with ENIT - Italian National Tourism Board e con il patrocinio del Ministero degli Affari Esteri e della Cooperazione Internazionale per promuovere la  competence and expertise of roots tourism professionals  legata al Turismo delle Origini con un programma di approfondimenti tematici, di formazione, di interscambio e networking di alto livello.

 Con il patrocinio

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2024 is the year of Roots Tourism

By barbara minafra | January 23, 2024

The year 2024 is poised to be the year of  Roots Tourism , an emotive journey “back to one’s roots” for Italian migrants and their descendants. This trip takes them back to the places they, or their intrepid ancestors—parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents—left behind for a new life in America, embarking on this monumental journey without knowing a single word of English. These trips serve as a bridge to the past, bringing to life the tales, traditions, and the very towns where their forebears dwelled, while also connecting with distant relatives who bear their family name.

Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister  Antonio Tajani  highlighted the significance of this theme for the government, announcing a strategic focus on a market with an estimated 80 million people worldwide with Italian roots. The key target countries for this initiative, reflecting the historical patterns of Italian emigration, include Argentina, Brazil, Venezuela, Uruguay, Colombia, Paraguay, Chile, the United States, Canada, South Africa, Germany, Switzerland, France, Belgium, and the United Kingdom. Specifically in the  United States , the latest census records a substantial Italian-origin population of 17.3 million, ranking as the fourth-largest European ethnic group, following Germans, Irish, and English. However, leading Italian-American organizations, the  National Italian American Foundation (NIAF)  and the  Order Sons and Daughters of Italy in America (OSDIA) , estimate this number to be upwards of 25 million.

The  Registry of Italians Resident Abroad (AIRE)  lists 313,450 Italians in the United States as of December 31, 2020. These individuals are spread across ten consular districts, with 21,193 in Boston, 26,801 in Chicago, 18,787 in Detroit, 25,973 in Philadelphia, 12,916 in Houston, 30,197 in Los Angeles, 47,785 in Miami, 95,305 in New York, 26,335 in San Francisco, and 8,158 in Washington D.C. Notably, California alone accounts for 56,532 registrants, approximately one-fifth of the total.

Besides “first-generation” Italians, who arrived in the United States during the varied migration waves of the last century up to the early 1960s, recent immigration has predominantly consisted of highly educated compatriots, many with university or advanced degrees. This group includes young Italian entrepreneurs who invest in the United States while maintaining their primary interests in Italy, as well as university professors, scientists, and researchers, particularly in the fields of computing and high-tech, who have translated their discoveries and inventions into significant industrial contributions. 

“Roots Tourism,” Deputy Prime Minister Tajani elaborates, “is a strategic boon for all national territories that are yet untouched by mass tourism,” but more than that, it’s “a golden opportunity to fortify our connections with our communities overseas and to shed light on the small hamlets and rural communities that stand at the origin of their migration story. These are the guardians of the values, culture, and traditions our compatriots have disseminated worldwide.” It’s essential to acknowledge that Italians in America have carved out their place in every facet of the country’s life— politics, economy, arts, cinema, science, research, and sports. Their contributions have not only elevated Italy’s stature in the United States but have also created a genuine “relational bridge” between Italy and the USA, enhancing and strengthening our bilateral, commercial, and touristic relationships.

In recent years, there’s been a burgeoning interest in Italy among the Italian-American community and others, fueled by a mosaic of compelling factors. This includes the allure of the Italian lifestyle, our coveted quality of life, and Italy’s flourishing prestige in an array of domains—ranging from culture, fashion, and design to gastronomy, oenology, scientific research, and cutting-edge technology. This growing fascination has manifested in a significant surge in tourism to Italy, a notable rise in the number of students immersing themselves in the Italian language and culture, and a marked increase in applications for Italian citizenship. 

The decision to designate 2024 as the year of Roots Tourism is the culmination of a journey that began last year with the launch of the “Integrated Strategy for the Revival of the Tourism Sector in Post-COVID-19 Italy.” This initiative, a 20 million euro project embedded in the National Plan for Resilience and Recovery and backed by the European Union’s post-pandemic Next Generation EU plan, targets a wide array of initiatives in the tourism sector aimed at the extensive population of Italians and those of Italian descent around the globe. It is a pivotal step in rejuvenating the industry after the Covid-19 downturn. 

Throughout 2024, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation is set to lead a series of initiatives focused on eco-sustainability and digitalization. These initiatives aim to rejuvenate Italy’s charming villages and rural landscapes with a variety of sustainable development strategies: restoring unused buildings and infrastructure, enhancing local hospitality and gastronomic experiences, arranging guided tours, and promoting a range of activities. These efforts are designed to cultivate a tourism experience that enriches visitors’ understanding of their family histories and Italian cultural heritage. This encompasses everything from religious and social practices to traditional crafts and even the local music that echoes through the streets of these towns. “Our aim,” Tajani asserts, “is for numerous Italians living abroad or those descended from Italians to return and rediscover the places where their grandparents once lived, thereby conveying the essence of Italian identity and driving tourism growth.”

At the heart of Roots Tourism lies a profound emphasis on the  preservation of memory . The narratives of emigration, sacrifice, and triumph of our ancestors act as guiding lights for Italian descendants worldwide. In this vein, Farnesina’s General Directorate for Italians Abroad and Migration Policies has initiated the  Italians Abroad, the Diaries Tell  project. This project features a curated selection of poignant excerpts from accounts categorized under “emigration” at the National Diary Archive Foundation in Pieve Santo Stefano, Tuscany. This compilation, which includes 200 life stories selected from over a thousand and published on  www.idiariraccontano.org , brings forth select pages that have been carefully digitized. These stories do more than recount personal experiences, they elevate individual life paths to documents of historical relevance. This endeavor wants to encapsulate the collective sense of migration experiences, constituting the primary substance of the documentary collection, alongside narratives of journeys and temporary work abroad. In essence, this archive stands as a rich source for Roots Tourists, offering insights even before they start their journey to Italy.

Moreover,  ENIT , the National Tourism Agency, hosts a specialized section ( https://www.italia.it/it/italia/cosa-fare/turismo-delle-radici ) dedicated to Roots Tourism. This section serves as an essential guide for those seeking to reconnect with their Italian heritage: it eloquently invites our global compatriots to “rediscovering your family history and the pride of your origins. Prepare to delve into local traditions, exceptional achievements, ancient crafts, and the flavors and scents of the villages and regions from where your ancestors set forth. Come and recreate your ties with Italy: you will gain a deeper understanding of your past, give a new meaning to your present, and perhaps — the message concludes — you might even decide to change your future. The journey into discovering your roots begins here.”

Deeply connected with the journey’s focus on memory and identity is its clear  touristic appeal . Descendants of Italians across the globe represent a valuable market for Italy. They drive sustainable tourism and create year-round demand for our facilities. ENIT’s data shows that from 2010 to 2019, over 10 million international tourists visited Italy to explore their ancestral roots, spending more than 5 billion euros. These figures have been steadily increasing: in 1997, ENIT counted only 5.8 million people in the “Roots Tourist” category. By 2018, that number had jumped to 10 million, a rise of 72.5%.

Job creation and eco-sustainability are also key benefits of this type of tourism: these tourists often seek guides to lead them off the beaten path of popular art cities to quieter regions, frequently overlooked and lacking extensive tourist services. Yet, it’s these places that hold a unique appeal for Roots Tourists who seek connections to their familial past. Designing tailored itineraries not only enhances the emotional aspect of tourism but also lets Roots Travelers research and plan their trip in advance. Shifting the focus to Roots Tourism also moves tourists away from the usual hotspots, bringing attention and development to lesser-known, less-developed areas. This approach helps balance economic growth while maintaining the sustainable, rural character of these regions. The development of small towns and countryside areas includes refurbishing old houses and infrastructure and boosting local services and products, especially in food and wine. A significant long-term effect is that the Roots Tourist often becomes an advocate for the regions connected to their family history, starting a new chain of connections with Italy.

Il 2024 sarà l’anno del “Turismo delle Radici”, quel viaggio “verso casa” che gli emigrati italiani e i loro discendenti compiono per tornare nei luoghi da cui partirono da giovani o che coraggiosamente genitori, nonni e bisnonni si lasciarono per sempre alle spalle per andare in America senza nemmeno conoscere una parola d’inglese. Viaggi nella “memoria” familiare per dare corpo ai racconti, alle tradizioni, ai paesi in cui vissero gli antenati e conoscere i rami lontani della famiglia che porta il proprio cognome.

“E’ un tema di grande interesse per il governo”, ha detto il vicepremier e ministro degli Esteri Antonio Tajani annunciando la decisione di puntare su un mercato che per l’Italia ha un target potenziale di 80 milioni di persone. Tanti si stima siano gli oriundi con “radici” italiane nel mondo. I principali Paesi target dell’emigrazione italiana sono Argentina, Brasile, Venezuela, Uruguay, Colombia, Paraguay, Cile, Stati Uniti, Canada, Sud Africa, Germania, Svizzera, Francia, Belgio e Regno Unito. I soli statunitensi di origine italiana, secondo il censimento più recente, sono 17,3 milioni: il quarto gruppo etnico di origine europea dopo tedeschi, irlandesi e inglesi negli Usa. Le due principali organizzazioni italo-americane, la National Italian American Foundation (Niaf) e l’Order Sons and Daughters of Italy in America (Osdia) stimano invece che gli americani di origine italiana siano almeno 25 milioni.

Gli italiani iscritti all’Anagrafe degli Italiani Residenti all’Estero (Aire) negli Stati Uniti sono 313.450 (dato aggiornato al 31 dicembre 2020), così ripartiti nelle 10 circoscrizioni consolari: 21.193 a Boston; 26.801 a Chicago; 18.787 a Detroit; 25.973 a Filadelfia; 12.916 a Houston; 30.197 a Los Angeles; 47.785 a Miami; 95.305 a New York; 26.335 a San Francisco e 8.158 a Washington D.C. La sola California ha quindi 56.532 iscritti, più o meno un quinto del totale.

Accanto agli italiani di “prima generazione”, arrivati negli Stati Uniti nelle diverse ondate migratorie del secolo scorso fino ai primi anni ‘60, i flussi di più recente immigrazione sono costituiti, in gran parte, da concittadini molto qualificati, in possesso di titoli di studio universitari o superiori. Sono soprattutto giovani imprenditori italiani che investono negli Stati Uniti ma che conservano in Italia il centro principale dei loro interessi, professori universitari, scienziati e ricercatori che hanno applicato le loro scoperte e invenzioni in ambito industriale, in particolare nei settori dell’informatica e dell’hi-tech.

“Il Turismo delle Radici – ha detto il vicepremier Tajani – è un’opportunità strategica per tutti i territori nazionali non interessati dal turismo di massa” ma è anche “una grande opportunità per rafforzare i rapporti con le nostre comunità all’estero e per valorizzare i piccoli villaggi e le comunità rurali all’origine del fenomeno migratorio, custodi dei valori, della cultura e delle tradizioni che i nostri connazionali hanno diffuso nel mondo”. Non va dimenticato che gli italiani in America si sono fatti strada in tutti i settori della vita del Paese (politica, economia, arte, cinema, scienza e ricerca, sport) e se hanno contribuito al crescente prestigio dell’Italia negli Stati Uniti, la loro presenza costituisce un vero e proprio “ponte relazionale” fra Italia e Usa, che sostiene, sviluppa e rafforza le relazioni bilaterali, commerciali e turistiche.  

Da anni si assiste peraltro a una crescente attenzione per l’Italia da parte della comunità italo-americana (ma non solo), che si spiega con vari fattori tra i quali l’attrazione per lo stile di vita italiano e per la nostra qualità della vita e l’affermazione dell’immagine dell’Italia nei campi più diversi, dalla cultura alla moda, dal design alla gastronomia all’enologia, dalla ricerca all’alta tecnologia. Diretta conseguenza sono la crescita dei viaggi per turismo verso l’Italia, l’incremento di studenti di lingua e cultura italiana, l’aumento delle domande di cittadinanza italiana.

La decisione dell’Italia di dedicare il 2024 al Turismo delle Radici è in realtà frutto di un percorso avviato lo scorso anno quando è stata presentata la “Strategia integrata per la ripresa del settore del turismo nell’Italia post Covid-19”, un progetto da 20 milioni di euro inserito nel Piano Nazionale di Resilienza e Ripresa finanziato dal piano europeo di rilancio post-pandemico Next Generetion Ue, che si propone di adottare iniziative nel settore del turismo rivolte al vasto numero di italiani e di italiani di origine italiana nel mondo, contribuendo così al rilancio del comparto dopo la crisi causata dal Covid-19. Il ministero degli Affari Esteri e della Cooperazione Internazionale promuoverà per tutto il 2024 iniziative ispirate all’ecosostenibilità e alla digitalizzazione per valorizzare i piccoli borghi e le aree rurali italiane attraverso strumenti di sviluppo sostenibile che includono la ristrutturazione e il recupero di abitazioni e infrastrutture dismesse, l’ospitalità, l’enogastronomia locale, le visite guidate e tutta quella serie di attività che promuovono un turismo capace di portare a una profonda conoscenza della storia familiare, della cultura, delle tradizioni storiche, dai riti religiosi e sociali all’artigianato tipico, dal folklore alla musica tradizionale suonata per le strade dei paesi. “Vogliamo – ha detto Tajani – che tanti italiani che vivono all’estero o che sono discendenti di italiani possano tornare indietro e scoprire dove hanno vissuto i loro nonni. Questo trasmette messaggi di identità italiana e di crescita turistica”.

Correlata al Turismo delle Radici è infatti la valorizzazione della Memoria. Le storie di emigrazione, sacrificio e successo degli avi sono un punto di riferimento per gli italo-discendenti nei cinque continenti. Proprio per questo, la Direzione Generale degli Italiani all’Estero e delle Politiche Migratorie della Farnesina ha finanziato il progetto “Italiani all’estero, i diari raccontano”, una selezione delle parti più significative delle testimonianze raccolte nel fondo catalogato con il soggetto “emigrazione” presso la Fondazione Archivio Diaristico Nazionale di Pieve Santo Stefano, in Toscana. Si tratta di una selezione di un 200 storie di vita (pubblicata su www.idiariraccontano.org ) scelte tra più di mille presenti nel fondo, dalle quali sono state estrapolate e digitalizzate alcune pagine. Si tratta di racconti che scavalcano la vicenda personale e trasformano la singola traiettoria umana in un documento di interesse storico. Oltre ai grandi avvenimenti storici, questo progetto si è posto cioè l’obiettivo di raccontare il vissuto comune a tutte le esperienze migratorie, che costituiscono il nucleo principale della selezione documentale insieme ai racconti di viaggio o di lavoro temporaneo all’estero. Detto altrimenti, rappresenta una ricca fonte di consultazione per i Turisti delle Radici che potranno usufruirne anche prima di intraprendere il loro viaggio in Italia.  

Sul sito dell’Enit, l’Agenzia Nazionale del Turismo, è invece presente un’intera sezione ( https://www.italia.it/it/italia/cosa-fare/turismo-delle-radici ) dedicata al Turismo delle Radici, una vera e propria guida alla scoperta della propria italianità: “Riscoprire la storia familiare e l’orgoglio delle proprie origini è l’invito rivolto ai nostri connazionali in tutto il mondo. Preparatevi a conoscere le tradizioni locali, le eccellenze, gli antichi mestieri, i sapori e i profumi dei borghi e dei territori da dove sono partiti i vostri antenati e venite a riallacciare i legami con l’Italia: comprenderete di più il vostro passato, darete un significato diverso al presente e magari – si legge sul portale – deciderete di cambiare il vostro futuro. Il viaggio alla ricerca delle vostre radici inizia qui”.

Strettamente collegato alla memoria, ovvero alla dimensione identitaria del viaggio, c’è ovviamente l’aspetto più schiettamente turistico.  

Gli italiani discendenti nel mondo rappresentano un segmento dalle enormi potenzialità per il nostro Paese. Generano un turismo sostenibile e una domanda internazionale che utilizza le infrastrutture tutto l’anno. Enit stima che tra il 2010 e il 2019 siano stati oltre 10 milioni i turisti che hanno raggiunto l’Italia dall’estero per riscoprire le proprie radici. La loro spesa è stata stimata in oltre 5 miliardi di euro. Numeri in crescita progressiva: nel 1997 Enit contava “appena” 5,8 milioni di viaggiatori nella categoria “Turista delle Radici”. Nel 2018, undici anni dopo, questo numero è aumentato a 10 milioni ovvero è cresciuto del +72,5%.

Occupazione ed ecosostenibilità sono altri due aspetti da non sottovalutare. Questa tipologia di turisti richiede specialisti capaci di portare i viaggiatori in aree lontane dalle rotte principali delle città d’arte e in zone solitamente colpite da spopolamento e con pochi servizi d’accoglienza, che tuttavia hanno un fascino speciale per il “Turista delle Radici” che lì ritrova le origini familiari. Saper creare itinerari con esperienze personalizzate, non solo alimenta un turismo emozionale ma permette al “Viaggiatore delle Radici” di studiare e documentarsi sul proprio itinerario ancor prima di raggiungere la destinazione. Non solo. Puntare sul Turismo delle Radici consente di accantonare le solite mete toccate dai flussi turistici tradizionali, valorizzando aree interne meno conosciute e poco sviluppate che possono così colmare il loro divario di crescita economica nel rispetto della propria natura rurale, in maniera ecosostenibile. La valorizzazione dei piccoli centri e delle campagne consente così la ristrutturazione e il recupero di abitazioni e infrastrutture in disuso, oltre a favorire servizi e prodotti locali (su tutti, quelli enogastronomici). Con un altro importante risultato di prospettiva: il Turista delle Radici diventa “ambasciatore” dei territori che custodiscono la sua storia familiare, il primo anello di una catena di nuovi legami con l’Italia.  

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Ministero degli Affari Esteri e della Cooperazione Internazionale

Ricerca sito live, presentation of the “roots tourism: an integrated strategy for the recovery of the tourism sector in post-covid-19 italy” project within the framework of the nrrp.

• Publication date: February 15 2023
• Tipology: In detail

On Wednesday, 15 February, Farnesina housed the presentation of the NRRP Project “ Turismo delle radici: una strategia integrata per la ripresa del settore del turismo nell’Italia post Covid-19 ” (Roots Tourism: An integrated strategy for the recovery of the tourism sector in post-Covid-19 Italy).

The Italian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Antonio Tajani, the Minister of Tourism, Daniela Santanché, the Undersecretary for Culture, Gianmarco Mazzi, the Minister of Education and Merit, Giuseppe Valditara, and the Minister of University and Research, Anna Maria Bernini, took part in the event along with the members of the Italian Parliament, the Presidents of the Regional Authorities, Mayors and Representatives of Local Councils.

Following the opening event, a technical session divided into four panels:

• “ I viaggi delle radici per la ripresa del turismo nell’Italia Post-Covid-19 ” (Roots travel for the recovery of tourism in post-Covid-19 Italy)
• “ L’impatto del turismo delle radici sui piccoli comuni ” (The impact of roots tourism on small municipalities)
• Presentation of the book Scoprirsi Italiani: i viaggi delle radici in Italia
• “ Comunicare il Turismo delle radici ” (Communicating Roots Tourism)

The previous event involved the Mayors of Municipalities with less than 5,000 inhabitants, among the primary recipients of the “Roots Tourism” Project.

The project – with an overall value of EUR 20 million – included in the National Resilience and Recovery Plan proposes adopting initiatives in the tourism sector aimed at the vast number of Italians and Italians of Italian origin in the world, thus contributing to its revival after the pandemic. With the “Roots Tourism” Project, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation (MAECI) intends to promote initiatives inspired by eco-sustainability and digitisation to enhance small Italian villages and rural areas through sustainable development dynamics. Such dynamics include the renovation and recovery of disused dwellings and infrastructures and favour the providers of local services and products.

Italian descendants worldwide represent a tourism segment with enormous potential for our country. They generate sustainable tourism and an international demand that uses the infrastructure all year round. It is estimated that Italian natives worldwide are between 60 and 80 million. The central target countries for Italian emigration are Argentina, Brazil, Venezuela, Uruguay, Colombia, Paraguay, Chile, the United States, Canada, South Africa, Germany, Switzerland, France, Belgium, and the United Kingdom.

ENIT estimates that between 2010 and 2019, more than 10 million tourists travelled to Italy from abroad to rediscover their roots. Their expenditure is estimated at more than EUR 5 billion.

“We want so many Italians who live abroad or are Italian descendants to be able to go back and discover where their grandparents lived. This message conveys the messages of Italian identity and tourism growth,” said Antonio Tajani.

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'Invisible History' revealed: Film screening this weekend on plantation life in N. Florida

In celebration of Tallahassee's bicentennial this year, Leon County Tourism is hosting a series of special film screenings of "Invisible History: Middle Florida's Hidden Roots."

The department is putting on the series in collaboration with acclaimed filmmaker Valerie Scoon and All Saint’s Cinema, 918 Railroad Avenue. The documentary sheds light on the lesser-known aspects of plantation life and slaves living in North Florida.

The free first screening is open to the public and takes place at 1 p.m. Sunday, April 28 at All Saint's Cinema, 918 Railroad Ave.

Additional screenings are scheduled for the following: 6:30 p.m. June 19, 6:30 p.m., 1 p.m. Aug. 17 and 1 p.m. Oct. 19. 1 p.m. and 1 p.,. Dec. 1. Registration is encouraged due to limited seating.

The screening will be followed by a dialogue session with Valerie Scoon and longtime Tallahassee resident and historian Althemese Barnes. According to a statement from Leon County Tourism, "our aim is to spark conversations that encourage deeper reflection on the history and culture of Tallahassee-Leon County during this Bicentennial year. "

More information and registration for the event can be found at TallahasseeLeonCounty200.com or reach out to Bicentennial Coordinator Vel Johnson at [email protected] .