REPORT FROM ITALY—An incendiary leaflet published by Spanish-owned NH Hoteles is creating a stir in Italy, where the business hotel chain has 56 properties.
The pamphlet, which was published in English and German, describes Sicily at “The triangle in the Mediterranean, cradle of the Cosa Nostra." Cosa Nostra is another term used to describe the Italian Mafia.
When the news appeared on the pages of the daily La Repubblica a few days ago, it was described as a diplomatic incident. Regarded as an outrage by political and cultural Italian personalities, the brochure has been withdrawn. Nevertheless, the controversy isn’t over.
“What happened is extremely regrettable,” said Guido Bernardi, NH Italia communication. “For us, it was unexpected and shocking. We didn’t know anything.”
The leaflet was designed five years ago by the German business unit, according to the chain management.
“It’s probably something stupid carried out by the communication manager in the wake of the (German newspaper) Der Spiegel’s cover “Spaghetti and Guns” (which depicted a gun on a plate of spaghetti),” Bernardi said. “Perhaps, he thought that Mafia could represent an attraction for German tourists. Evidently, it was the fruit of ignorance and little information.”
The brochure was a remnant of an old stock, distributed only in German properties and not in circulation anymore, HN Hoteles said.
“A Repubblica’s reader, an NH Hoteles guest, found it in a German hotel and filed it to the newspaper,” Bernardi added.
Italian press reported the alarming reactions of politicians and exponents of cultural life:
- “It’s extremely serious to trivialize the mafia and to reduce it to a tourist attraction. Sicily is the cradle of culture and art,” said Rita Borsellino, a centre-left politician and sister of Paolo, a magistrate murdered in a Mafia bomb attack. ”The Mafia was and is a threat to freedom that restrains our development."
- “It has offended an entire population,” said Raffaele Lombardo, Sicily's governor.
- “We should reply: ‘Welcome to Spain, the land of (separatist organization Euskadi Ta Askatasuna) and bomb attacks,’” declared Nino Strano, a Sicilian politician.
The affair is now at the doorstep of the Italian Ministry of Tourism because two deputies, Pippo Fallica and Giacomo Terranova, are promoting a parliamentary question. They asked NH Hoteles for a new advertising campaign as a remedy. Politician Franco Mineo, from the pages of La Repubblica, the second most-read Italian daily, said NH Hoteles should leave Sicily because of evident incapacity to attract tourism in the island. At the same time, a consumer association, Codacons, is evaluating the opportunity of a legal action against NH Hoteles, La Repubblica reported.
The author of the leaflet was fired five years ago. In any case, in a multinational company with 450 hotels throughout the world, it’s quite impossible for the Directorate-General to control any local activity. This wasn’t an advertising campaign, but just a tiny local initiative, Bernardi said.
NH Hoteles sent an official letter of apology to the Sicily’s Governor, and company management confirmed the chain’s interest in the island, where the company has 10 projects, including one in Palermo and one in Donnafugata.
“We are here in three years, after the acquisition of Framon and Jolly Hotels structures,” Bernardi said. “We are going on with investments. The Donnafugata project is significant and all the properties in Sicily have been restructured and renovated. That means considerable resources. Performances are positive, and the Island is where NH Hoteles is investing all the more. Beyond Sicily, we’re restructuring the hotel Porta Rossa in Florence, the more ancient Italian property and a XIII Century cloister in Amalfi.”