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Albergo Diffuso,developing tourism through innovation and tradition
The Albergo Diffuso in practice

It is therefore possible to state that an Albergo Diffuso is an innovative form of hospitality that can bring, both during its realization and after its start-up, sustainable development, triggering economic animation and providing opportunities for the balanced utilization of the local resources and tourist potentialities.

Initially the idea should be launched within a participated animation event where the local administration and/or other subjects that work for the local economic development of the area present the underlying advantages to the local population, and in particular to the existing economic operators and the owner of the houses.

An Albergo Diffuso is usually created if the following conditions are met:

• The idea has been launched within the local community and the residents have learned the advantages that can come from the innovation
  
• Therefore local actors are interested in working together
  
• A unique management unit can be created and is willing to take most of the entrepreneurial risk. The unit can be either a single entrepreneur, a cooperative, or any other most suitable form of productive association
  
• There exists a reasonable number of rooms (minimum 7) located at a reasonable distance from each other (not more than 200 meters), that can be put at disposition of the Albergo Diffuso for a long term (Minimum 9 years)
  
• The town or village is able to provide minimum services to the guests (existence of a pharmacy, of a food store, a coffee shop, etc.)
  
• The surroundings of the area should have some appeal (countryside, sea, mountains, archaeological sites etc.).
  
• The town or village is inhabited by a lively and welcoming community ready to share experiences with new-comers and to spend quality time with the tourists.

An Albergo Diffuso is mainly created in two ways.

• In the first case an investor purchases or rents the apartments and/or the houses and becomes the manager of what effectively is a “hotel which cannot be seen”.
  
• In the second case a group of local actors creates a consortium and delegates to a private subject (e.g. a cooperative) the management of the structure.

In both cases the role of the local administration is to “incubate” the project idea to support and incentivize it (e.g. facilitating legal aspect, investing in local infrastructure and/or in urban décor).

The paths that leads to the creation of an Albergo Diffuso starts from a territorial analysis which has the aim of verifying the existence of the aforementioned conditions, and passes through a promotional phase, which includes entrepreneurial scouting, through a technical phase, aimed at producing a sound business plan, and arrives to the provision of start-up support to the management unit (financial services).

Furthermore it may be necessary to support local administrations to re-arrange development plans of the towns in order to favour the incubation of the project idea and of the new start-up.