The first project on Basilicata, launched a little more than a month ago, is sponsored by the Agency for Promotion of Tourism in Basilicata. It is a video-narrative, in English, shot with a new approach, for Italy, broadcast only via web and promoted through different forms of viral marketing. Seven image and web professionals under 35, from all over the world, shot video and photos for one week in the most striking places of the Basilicata region. Over 6000 photos and seven videos, available online, used to create a short spot that is now a big hit on the web. The travel story involved a team that started at Matera and crossed Basilicata, with stops in the ghost town of Craco Vecchio, the Arab quarter of the Rabatana of Tursi, the Parco del Pollino, the Volo dell’Angelo at Castelmezzano, Maratea, Barile and many other places. An intense one-week journey during which the team traveled about 1200 km by car, boat and on foot, or in carts drawn by oxen. The idea and production behind the project are by Mikaela Bandini, who was born and raised in Capetown but now lives in Matera, where she works on corporate and territorial marketing. She explains: “This is the first time in Italy that a local administration has opted for an alternative kind of tourism promotion. No aerial views, no static images retouched with Photoshop, no expensive celebrity testimonials, as in most institutional campaigns. Instead, the impact of this project comes from the fact that it was done live, like a documentary, living in the places that are narrated, face to face with the people who live there. All on a limted budget”. Bandini, known in the world of online tourism for projects like Viaggi di Architettura and Urban Italy, believes this format on Basilicata will be just the first of a series on other Italian territories, gathered at the portal Cantforget.it. In short, journeys to remember. For more info: Viaggi di Architettura www.viaggidiarchitettura.it; Urban Italy www.urbanitaly.com; Cant Forget it www.cantforget.it.