The Forte di Bard Association and the Fondation Grand Paradis have launched a collaboration aimed at integrating their respective cultural and nature-based tourism offerings into a multidisciplinary approach.
Indeed, both organizations firmly believe that it is necessary to seek economies of scale and learning to remain competitive in the external market and to offer their services with high quality standards and sustainable cost-effectiveness.
The Gran Paradiso National Park and the area surrounding Forte di Bard lend themselves to the integration of their respective offerings due to the complementary nature of their morphological, environmental, and cultural aspects.
In this context, a project was developed—entirely funded by the European Social Fund—called “FORTEPARCO – Forte di Bard, Fondation Grand Paradis: A Proposal for an Integrated Offering.” The main results achieved by the project include the design, production, and marketing of tourism packages for individual visitors, adult groups, or school groups that combine the offerings of Forte di Bard and Fondation Grand Paradis into stay packages lasting from one to seven days, marketed by the two organizations and by the tour operators Eurotravel, Mowgli, and Anni 30 Viaggi.
Another objective achieved was participation in trade shows and workshops, such as the “Vacanze Weekend” fair in Padua and the “Buy’inVda” fair in Saint Vincent; the offerings of Forte di Bard and the Fondation Grand Paradis were also presented at the Espace Vallée d’Aoste in Paris.
As part of a promotional campaign, a hot-air balloon was customized with the logo “FORTEPARCO, Forte di Bard, Fondation Grand Paradis”; its flight over the Aosta Valley was featured in a segment on the 8:00 p.m. edition of TG1, which aired on Thursday, July 5, 2008, and reached an audience of 7.8 million viewers; The hot-air balloon was the centerpiece of an event series titled “Fly in a Hot-Air Balloon with FORTEPARCO,” which included tethered flights, educational games for children and adults, and the distribution of promotional materials at locations in Aosta, Bard, Cogne, Valsavarenche, and Rhêmes Notre Dame.
A post-project publication titled “FORTEPARCO – Bard Fortress and Fondation Grand Paradis: A Journey to the Heart of the Alps” was produced to present, through images and brief texts, what the two sites have to offer.