Italy’s most-read tourism magazine is collaborating with National Geographic Society
Milan, 28th March 2012 – Touring Club Italiano (TCI) presents National GeographicTouring, il nostro modo di viaggiare (“National Geographic Touring, our way to travel”). The new version of TCI’s monthly magazine will reach more than 300,000 members all over Italy from the end of March. The restyling is more than a simple change of name: The new magazine boasts an important collaboration with the National Geographic Society, one of the most eminent American institutions, which granted TCI the right to publish National Geographic Traveler magazine. Traveler is already available in 15 other countries. This agreement will ensure a wider international scope for Touring Club’s magazine, thanks to Traveler’s high-quality news, reporting, photographic portfolios and thematic columns.
National Geographic Touring is not the only editorial innovation for Touring Club: The magazine also will be available online at www.touringmagazine.it. A new App for tablets also will be created to give all members the chance to access and download the magazine’s in-depth articles, photo and video galleries, travel information and weekend offers. Access to all Web services will be free for the first three months for everyone (non-members included).
None of the tourism magazines in Italy can boast such a long and continuous publication history as Touring Club’s magazine can. TCI has published its magazine nonstop for almost 120 years: The first issue was printed in January 1895.
TCI’s magazine has always had distinguished collaborations for its reporting, from Dino Buzzati to Eugenio Montale, from Grazia Deledda to Leonardo Sciascia, from Montanelli to Brera, through Paolo Monelli, Piero Chiara, Luca Goldoni, Vittorio Feltri, Sergio Romano, Enzo Biagi, Carlo Cassola, Mario Cervi to Beppe Severgnini.
National Geographic Touring is directed by Silvestro Serra, whose job is to tell how Touring Club’s philosophy and values are changing, balancing the tradition, reliability and authority of its past with the contemporary traveller’s reality.
The new magazine’s editorial plan aims for the highest level of graphic and photographic quality, and collaborations with important authors, journalists, writers, art historians and geographers, as well as experienced fellow travellers who are able to inspire members to practise a kind of tourism that expands our knowledge and leaves consumerist clichés aside. This is “our way to travel,” as Touring Club promises in the magazine’s subtitle.
National Geographic Touring will include new thematic columns about sustainable journeys, travelling with animals and trips for young people. It will also stress low-cost aspects of traveling, selecting and proposing new destinations and good deals. There will also be a section, 48 ore in un’altra città (48 hours in another town), for those who would like to experience the best of a destination in less than 2 days.
Touring Club Italiano, which has always paid special attention to nature, decided to use for the magazine an environmentally sustainable paper that can save 13,9 acres of forest (equivalent to 8 soccer fields) that would soak up 280,56 tons of CO2 (the same weight as 56 African elephants weighing 5 tons each).
“This is the first of a series of events that will bring a number of changes to Touring Club,” says Franco Iseppi, President of TCI. “2012 is a year of renewal, and we are focusing our efforts on increasing the number of members. The best way to meet our target is bridging the gap between new tourists’ needs and our abilities to become again a moral and cultural authority in the tourism field. For these reasons we decided on a thematic renewal and a radical repositioning of our magazine with new topics and important names in journalism sharing their travel experiences and adding a prestigious contribution to the magazine.”
“Since it was founded more than a century ago, Touring Club Italiano has become a trusted resource for travellers in Italy,” said Terry Adamson, executive vice president for the National Geographic Society. “With National Geographic Touring, we hope to broaden Touring Club’s coverage of domestic and international destinations with compelling stories and imagery, while providing the type of practical advice that has made Touring Club so indispensable to its members.”
In 1894 a group of young and enlightened businessmen from Milan – including Luigi Vittorio Bertarelli and Federico Johnson – founded a private, self-funded association, Touring Club Ciclistico Italiano (Italian Cycling Touring Club). Their purpose was to offer members a network of contacts and a wide range of services in order to discover Italy. Touring, which then changed its name to Touring Club Italiano (Italian Touring Club), has the distinction of “inventing” Italian tourism and making Italy accessible to tourists, thanks to the first maps, guides, a road marking system and magazines. A small association quickly became an important tool to spread Italian spirit and national identity.
The National Geographic Society is one of the world’s largest nonprofit scientific and educational organizations. Founded in 1888 to “increase and diffuse geographic knowledge,” the Society works to inspire people to care about the planet. National Geographic reflects the world through its magazines, television programs, films, music and radio, books, DVDs, maps, exhibitions, live events, school publishing programs, interactive media and merchandise. National Geographic magazine, the Society’s official journal, published in English and 33 local-language editions, is read by more than 60 million people each month. The National Geographic Channel reaches 435 million households in 37 languages in 173 countries. National Geographic Digital Media receives more than 19 million visitors a month. National Geographic has funded more than 10,000 scientific research, conservation and exploration projects and supports an education program promoting geography literacy. For more information, visit www.nationalgeographic.com.
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Contacts:
Maria Alessio Ruffo
GPG ASSOCIATI
02/6696606
maria.alessio@gpg-associati.it
Riccardo Giusti
GPG ASSOCIATI
3472243161
r.giusti@gpg-associati.it
Tania Rao Torres
TOURING CLUB ITALIANO
02/8526214- 349/3371029
tania.raotorres@touringclub.it
Chiara Catella
TOURING CLUB ITALIANO
02/8526338
ufficio.comunicazione@touringclub.it