Sicily, additional services in cultural heritage: valorisation flops

An open game that risks, however, being interrupted before the final whistle. It is that of the entrusting of the so-called additional services in Sicily's archaeological parks, and the first call for bids, according to insiders, has already created more discontent than anything else. This is the call for tenders, worth almost 13 million, for the awarding of additional services in the parks of Taormina-Giardini Naxos, Tindari and the Aeolian Islands. A single macro-lot covering the entire province of Messina from Taormina to Tusa on the border with the province of Palermo. A choice that seemed excessive to most and that even the director general of the Department of Cultural Heritage and Sicilian Identity Mario la Rocca in a recent interview substantially rejected: "I find it absurd that in the same lot there are Taormina and Tindari because, since the receipts are completely different, it is clear that if one makes 10% on Taormina, being the same lot, one should make the same 10% on Tindari and on Tindari evidently one does not pay back the expenses". But there is more, if we want to be precise, because the creeping objections concern the overall approach of the call for bids: too unbalanced on ticketing, most say, and little on the real valorisation of real services for the archaeological heritage. On the subject, a judgment of the Council of State, called to rule on a tender for additional services for the Colosseum, Roman Forum-Palatine and Domus Aurea," has written clear words: on the theme of valorisation and the role that the chapter dedicated to ticketing should play "The contracting station would have eluded the principle of law that identifies the centrality of these services - to be assigned by concession (whereas in the case in point the different instrument of the service contract had been used) - with respect to ancillary activities such as ticketing and security, which in the tender would have had a main role, to the detriment of the additional services, also removed from the concessionary regime to become mere appendices of the former. A precedent that weighs against possible legal action. And in the tender concerning the Messina area, the chapter concerning personnel jumps to the eye: a hundred or so planned hirings that make the management of political patronage a real temptation.

Businesses in the sector are in turmoil and contest the basic approach: in fact, it is the entrepreneurs' thesis, the entire cultural heritage sector is not valued and preference is given to mere cash. And the widespread fear is that this call for tenders could be used as a model for other tenders that will have to be made in the coming months. Starting with the one for the management of additional services in the Park of Agrigento, which is worth 32 million euros (28 million of which for ticketing alone): the assignment of the additional services to Coopculture, which had won the tender in 2016, has been extended to 31 January. A technical extension necessary to prepare the new call for tenders and make the tender in good time given that Agrigento in 2025 is also the Italian capital of culture. The other incoming tender (the offices are working to define everything) is the one for the archaeological park of Syracuse: here on 31 October the experience of Aditus (which also managed Taormina-Giardini Naxos until 30 September) and the other enterprises present in a temporary association of enterprises ended. Also on the way is the call for tenders for the management of sites in Palermo (the Sicilian capital's lot includes the management of the Salinas Archaeological Museum, the Benedictine Cloister of Monreale, Palazzo Riso and the Zisa Castle). Of the contracted lots, the one in Trapani, which includes the archaeological parks of Selinunte and Segesta, will not go to tender. According to (conservative) estimates, the total value of the tenders for the five lots is around 80 million for all years of management. The fate of the Roman Villa del Casale and Morgantina (both in the Enna area) still remains to be defined. And this is no small matter. But above all, the fate of the minor archaeological parks that are not considered economically viable is still hanging in the balance: there are at least 11 of the 15 existing archaeological parks in the region. Precisely in order to avoid the abandonment of the minor parks, the idea of a change of pace is being put forward with a management by macro-areas with a managerial management of all sites in terms of marketing and perhaps even a single regional ticket office. Hypotheses and perhaps gambles that are already causing discussion. A single regional ticketing platform was already mentioned in the bill presented in the last legislature at the Sicilian Regional Assembly, which then got lost along the way.

Just as the idea of a partnership between one public entity and another is being discussed. In Syracuse, pending the completion of the tender, the Foundation for the National Institute of Ancient Drama (l'Inda) is currently in charge of the ticket office. But in general it is the underlying philosophy that needs to change in Sicily by aligning with the Cultural Heritage Code in a substantial and not formal way.

Entrepreneurs also from other regions are looking at the island with attention: 'The code of Cultural Heritage provides that in tenders for museum management, valorisation services, such as audioguides, exhibitions, marketing, bookshops, and didactics, should prevail over ticketing services and be entrusted in concession,' says Ilaria D'Uva, vice-president of Terziario Innovativo of Confindustria Firenze with the delegation for Culture. The legislator has understood that, in its aim of identifying the best companies to enhance museums, the concession formula is better than the contract form. The concession starts from a premise: to identify the company that knows how to enhance the museum to best welcome the visitor, in the protection of the rights of the worker, because in the case of the concession the company participates in the result with an advantage for the entire chain. So the private sector is involved and participates through the selection of more qualified workers, invests finances, energy and creativity, and improves the quality of services".