Since April 2022, Velo Service has been selected as one of the managing bodies of the Tourist Info Point of the Municipality of Bari. This assignment represents not only an extraordinary opportunity but also a great challenge for us. Our many years of experience in tourist hospitality, strengthened by our year-round on-site presence and our street agency, allows us to approach this role with competence and passion. Being the official face of the city of Bari is for us a source of pride and responsibility. We are highly motivated to contribute to the transformation and improvement of the city’s tourism experience.
Our vision for the Bari Info Point is to transform it into the Tourist’s Home, a place that goes far beyond simple reception and information services. Our strategic goal is to create a vital connection between the city and its visitors, a hub that fosters valuable synergies with public and private stakeholders, the municipal administration, local operators, cultural site managers, associations, volunteers, retailers, schools, accommodation facilities, restaurants, travel agencies, tour operators and tourist guides. We want the Info Point to become a catalyst for authentic experiences and a key reference point for anyone wishing to discover the true essence of Bari.
Despite the abundance of online resources, visitors still prefer to speak directly with staff at the counter to receive personalised assistance. For this reason, it is essential to rely on qualified professionals with the skills and credentials needed to ensure the highest level of service.
DATA COLLECTION
Visitor flows at the Info Point in Piazza Ferrarese are recorded daily and in real time. This allows us to gather data on daily, monthly and annual attendance year after year and to carry out important evaluations on the tourism trends in Bari. It is in fact a privileged observatory in this regard.
The front office staff collects a series of recurring requests ranging from simple maps to public transport information, children’s activities and more.
Every day, the Info Point operators work to find information and meet the various needs of visitors. At the same time, the staff listens to and welcomes suggestions and reports from tourists, residents and local businesses regarding both positive experiences and critical issues encountered during their stay.
TERRITORY EXPERIENCE
Visitors who turn to the Info Point receive full support from the staff throughout all stages of their trip planning. This includes itinerary design, booking of activities related to local discovery and cultural interest, either directly organized or through third parties. Assistance is also provided for booking luggage storage services, purchasing tickets for events or exhibitions, reserving NCC taxi services, guided tours and sightseeing experiences, as well as facilitating the use of public transportation.
DISTRIBUTION OF MATERIALS
The staff prepares and ensures the supply of updated materials produced by the Info Point, Puglia Promozione and third parties, as well as their distribution at the Info Point in Piazza Ferrarese. The most requested materials are city maps, available in a printed version covering the historic centre and urban centre, and in a digital version accessible via QR Code, in an eco friendly perspective.
PROMOTION AND COMMERCIALIZATION
The Info Point has built strong relationships with local operators, suppliers of souvenirs, gadgets, editorial materials and promotional products that are displayed and sold at the Info Point in Piazza Ferrarese. The objective is to offer national and international visitors a wide range of unique products representing the identity of Bari and the entire Apulia region.
COMMUNICATION
The staff is dedicated every day to managing requests received by email, through social media channels and by phone. The Info Point maintains an active presence on social media, publishing content that ranges from the promotion of tourist destinations to useful advice for travellers, including stories from locals, tourists and staff members. It also provides information about the locations of tourist Info Points and updates on ongoing collaborations.
TOURIST AND CULTURAL PROMOTION
The Info Point is actively involved, in line with the thematic areas proposed by the Regional Agency Puglia Promozione, in the tourist and cultural promotion of the city of Bari in the following sectors:
Local food and wine
Walking routes such as the Via Francigena, the Via Traiana and the Via Peuceta. Among the upcoming goals is to provide the pilgrim stamp directly on site, an important tool used and requested by walkers to certify their passage from one city to another.
- Cycle tourism
- History and traditions
- Cultural sites
The visit of Archaeological Bari lasting two hours is available every Sunday morning at 10:00 with the participation of specialised archaeologists in Italian and English. The itinerary begins at the excavations of Piazza del Ferrarese and continues to Palazzo Simi, a late Renaissance residence that contains layers of history dating back to the Byzantine and Romanesque periods. The tour then proceeds along the ancient walls of Bari until reaching the Archaeological Museum of Santa Scolastica. Located inside the medieval Benedictine monastery and its sixteenth century bastion, the museum preserves the earliest history of Bari from the Bronze Age through the Middle Ages to the nineteenth century.
SEA
Apulia is one of the most sought after destinations for seaside tourism. Visitors who turn to the Info Point in Piazza Ferrarese are offered a wide selection of urban beaches, both equipped and free, located within the city and accessible on foot or by public transport, all provided with essential services.
MEMORY
The Info Point welcomes new forms of memory tourism by suggesting specific itineraries that recount places and historical events from Bari’s past which have inevitably shaped the memory of the city and its inhabitants. These include the Military Shrine, the bombing of the Port of Bari in 1943, the War Cemetery, the arrival of the Vlora in 1991 and the fire of the Petruzzelli Theatre on the night of 26 October 1991.
In particular, the Info Point has organised a free guided tour called The Places of Memory in collaboration with Rossella Mauro, writer, and Paola Di Marzo, art historian of the Civic Museum of Bari. The tour aims to enhance the antifascist history of the city by retracing locations and traces of the resistance and recalling events such as the bombing of the port on 2 December 1943, the explosion of the Henderson ship on 9 April 1945 and the First Congress of the National Liberation Committees held at the Piccinni Theatre in 1944, while remembering significant figures such as Giuseppe Di Vittorio, Nicola Bellomo and Michele Romito, always guided by the narration of the two experts.
COLLABORATIONS
As the Tourist’s Home, the Info Point in Piazza Ferrarese maintains constant and ongoing collaborations with partners and operators in the sector including associations, publishing houses, museums and cultural sites, private entities, public administration and training institutions.
TOURIST INFO POINT IN PIAZZA MORO
The Tourist Info Point in Piazza Moro operates in the non staffed modality, offering visitors access to information panels. In line with the commitment made with the Municipal Administration to make the Piazza Moro Info Point more attractive and to enhance the local artistic heritage, two panels dedicated to representative photos of the city of Bari have been installed. These panels are renewed every six months to present a variety of images throughout the year.
INFO BIKE AROUND BARI’S TOURIST SITES
Info Bike is an eco friendly mobile unit, guided and managed by one of our operators, that moves around the city during specific hours of the day to reach Bari’s main tourist attractions. Positioned in the busiest areas, Info Bike functions primarily as an Info Point, making access to tourist information easy and immediate. It operates as a mobile information service, always ready to answer visitors’ questions and requests. On board, visitors can find maps and informational books about Bari and Apulia, useful for enriching their travel experience.
