The City of Chocolate Takes Shape in Perugia, a Boost for Food and Wine and Tourism

The Srl Società Benefit Destinazione Cioccolato was created to give new life to the former Covered Market of Perugia by creating, by 2025, within the premises of the former Covered Market of Perugia, the City of Chocolate, the largest and most innovative experiential museum dedicated to cocoa and chocolate in Italy, spread over 2,800 square meters.

The project, on the initiative of Eugenio Guarducci, founder of the famous (and now thirty-year-old) Eurochocolate event, took shape when, in January 2023, the Municipality of Perugia published the notice of the Concession for the enhancement of the former Covered Market.

Confident of the solidity of the project undertaken, a group of entrepreneurs with a solid background in the tourism, event organization and museum management sectors, together with trade associations, joined together in the Srl Società Benefit Destinazione Cioccolato .

In July 2023, the company was awarded the tender and, following a complex authorization process, signed the Agreement for the Thirty-Year Enhancement Concession of the Covered Market on 6 June 2024, subsequently starting the works, which will continue until 2025, the year in which the City of Chocolate will be inaugurated.

The City of Chocolate: Between ambitions and numbers

The City of Chocolate, as thought, is ready to qualify as the largest and most innovative experiential museum on cocoa and chocolate in Italy, with an annexed “bean to bar” chocolate factory, choco-shop and chocolate bar.

It fits decisively and thoughtfully into four different trends, all growing: Culture, Entertainment, Experiential Tourism and Food and Wine. Among the company’s goals, there is that of reaching 370 thousand visitors starting from the third year of opening.

But the ambitions go well beyond the “number of entries”, which are expected to be more than positive, also strengthened by the certification of Nomisma.

The trend of visitors to Italian museums increases in 2023 by 23% compared to 2022 and by 5% compared to 2019. Tourism in Umbria , in the first 7 months of 2024, exceeded by 15.6% the presences in the same period of 2019.

Every year, the Chocolate Museum in Cologne counts 560 thousand visitors and Eurochocolate can boast 800 thousand visitors for each edition.

The City of Chocolate started an equity crowdfunding campaign

The costs for the implementation of the project, estimated at around 6 million euros, have already been fully approved thanks to the MIMIT measure Italia Economia Sociale (promoted by Invitalia) and the involvement of the regional financial company Gepafin through the Umbria Innova measure.

Teh City of Chocolate Srl SB has foreseen from the very beginning in its management plan the involvement of a widespread shareholder base open to citizens, businesses, associations and foundations, to be implemented through an equity crowdfunding campaign on Mamacrowd.

The aim is not only to give a strong boost to marketing activities, but also to create a real International Observatory of Cocoa and Chocolate, to finance sustainable supply chain projects in cocoa producing countries and to support social inclusion projects within the City of Chocolate.

The campaign has a maximum collection target of 1 million euros and represents a form of investment that allows everyone, from small savers to “institutional” investors, to become members of the City of Chocolate.

There are four different types of investors, depending on the size of the investment, each with different benefits: the categories “Milk”, “Gianduia”, “Dark” and “Extra Dark”.

From local and food and wine tourism to the protection of the supply chain

The result is an ambitious project, which first of all re-enhances a historic building in the city of Perugia, giving an important boost to tourism and entertainment, and to the world of food and wine, thanks to chocolate, which has its own historicity in the Umbrian capital.

In addition to attracting visitors, by inserting itself with ability and acumen into sectors that are already on the rise, it aims to monitor geographical and thematic areas connected to the supply chain, with a view to promoting research and actions in favour of biodiversity.

Furthermore, the aim is to strengthen social inclusion projects aimed at involving disadvantaged individuals and to improve the contractual conditions of farmers and operators in the entire cocoa supply chain.

The City of Chocolate does not want to represent a unicum, but rather a possible model/format to be replicated in other Italian cities and abroad, especially in those countries of the Middle and Far East where curiosity and interest in the world of chocolate is growing.

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(Featured image by amirali mirhashemian via Unsplash)

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