Meet Luisa Puppo, one of the Association’s newest members. Luisa is the founder and owner of  Welcome Management – Ligucibario ®. Since 1994, her expertise has largely been with destinations, food and wine experiential tourism, marketing and training professionals. Ligucibario® is a dynamic on- & off-line platform which she created with her business partner and husband, Umberto Curti. Together they specialize in Ligurian ethnogastronomy, crafts, cultures and traditions. Ligucibario® is the corporate brand of Welcome Management (est. 2001), a consultancy firm specialized in marketing and training for the tourism, enogastronomy and retail sectors.

As a senior consultant (project design, project coordinator, AE trainer), she works on account of VET centres, universities, SME organizations (tourism, crafts, food & wine), consortia, Chambers of Commerce and other local authorities. She specializes in the varied facets of destination management and branding, with a focus on rural areas and special interest tourism (e.g., food & wine, crafts, art & culture, activities & sports).

Luisa Puppo is a gourmet, an English lecturer, translator and blogger. She is the co-author of “Day by day English.” or in Italian, “L’inglese quotidiano per l’accoglienza turistico-commerciale”, as well as “Genova gourmet. Storie e ricette della tradizione  (History, recipes and traditions)” and also “A scuola di cacao. conosci e degusta il cioccolato”, or in English, “The cocoa school. Learn and taste chocolate”. She also edits the LiguriabyLuisa blog (in English).

She grew up in an Italian family lead by the archetypical “Nonna” (Grandma) who mastered both the art of choosing ingredients and traditional cuisine. Moreover, her father was a gourmet and a wine expert. He used to take her and her brother along his foodie tours, through wine cellars, manufacturers and restaurants.

Among her favorite foodie destinations, Luisa named France (“a multi-fold gourmet traveller’s paradise just around the corner from Liguria. I love the way they market wine and cheese.”); Italy’s Piedmont region (“the perfect match of sumptuous landscapes and food and wine excellence, not to forget cultural resources. A kaleidoscope of traditions, from the hearty dishes of rural areas to the elegance of court cuisine in Turin.”) and of course, Liguria (“a unique mix of sea and mountains, a crossroads of routes and trades, a food and wine history handbook – and the cradle of Mediterranean cuisine as well. All of that in a handful of kilometres.”) Those sound like three great choices to us.

Luisa Puppo joined the World Food Travel Association for benchmarking, networking and exchange of experiences and best practices. These “keywords” are truer than ever when it comes to food, wine and tourism – a “concentrate of contaminations and conviviality. The scope and aim of WFTA suit this all.” Besides the networking opportunities, Luisa is looking forward to participating in the Association’s events. Luisa recommends to prospective members to join the Association to widen their professional network, exchange views, increase their visibility, and to attend events and take advantage of training opportunities (discounted for members, of course).

In the near future, Luisa looks forward to the launch of her new  LiguriabyLuisa  blog and a series of projects dedicated to food & wine experiential tourism that will encompass education and destination marketing/product design.

Welcome Luisa. It’s a pleasure to have you in our community!