Annual Report 2011 - Fai

1. Protecting and enhancing
Opening up to the public
Tutelare e valorizzare
Apertura al pubblico
© F. Pagani
© A. Angelucci
FAI - Castello di Masino, Caravino (TO)
2007 2008 2009 2010 2011
409,000
TOTAL VISITOR
NUMBERS OVER
RECENT YEARS
336,800
381,000
370,000
358,000
WONDERFUL PROPERTIES TO BE FULLY EXPERIENCED
The ultimate aim of our work is, having restored our properties, to open them up to the public,
allowing everyone who is interested to experience all that they have to offer first-hand. For this
reason, each of the properties for which we are responsible can be visited every day
from spring through to autumn and in certain cases – such as Villa Necchi Campiglio in
Milan – for almost 365 days a year. This has allowed us to welcome, over the course of the 36
years for which we have been operating, a total of around five million visitors.
In 2011, the most popular of our properties with the general public turned out to
be the Castello di Masino, which was visited by a total of 67,000 people. Not far behind
came the Villa del Balbianello, which – with more than 50,000 visitors – knocked
the Parco Villa Gregoriana (with a still very respectable figure of 47,700 visitors) into
third place this year. Overall visitor numbers to all of our properties were 3% up on 2010,
thanks in part to the increasing attractiveness of the events and initiatives staged there. As
a result, revenues at the ticket desks were 13.3% up on the year before, thanks also
to the increased demand for services relating to school trips. The gross turnover of the
bookshops fell very slightly – by 1%, net of sales made at special events. This decrease, albeit
minimal, was most likely a result of the challenging economic backdrop.
These figures do not take into account the three new properties that we opened up to the
public in 2011: in 9 months, the Negozio Olivetti attracted more than 11,000 visitors
(including tourists, residents keen to rediscover this little treasure, and connoisseurs of
architecture); the loggias, the magnificent frescoes and the superb grounds that invite you to
indulge in the “leisure pursuits” afforded by the Villa dei Vescovi have proved so attractive
that in just 6 months they have managed to pull in more than 22,500 visitors, who have
been unanimously delighted by the maniacal attention to detail and warm welcome on offer
there; last of all, the Bosco di San Francesco, to which entry is free of charge, has been
transformed in next-to-no-time into one of the favoured destinations for travellers and pilgrims
in search of an extraordinary mystical/spiritual path that allows them to feel at one with nature.
© E. Volpato
36 Annual Report 2011 Annual Report 2011 37