In 2023, the Municipality of Siena obtained GSTC certification, becoming the first Italian art city to achieve this international recognition. A journey that began in 2021 alongside Etifor, which led the city to rethink its tourism governance in a structured way. We spoke with Vanna Giunti, Councillor for Tourism.
What was the need or challenge that led you to collaborate with Etifor?
In 2021, the decision to work with Etifor didn’t come from a desire to “sell” Siena better, but from the need for guidance to help protect the city as a living organism. We wanted to break free from the “dictatorship” of arrival and presence data alone, and embrace a sustainable management model capable of transforming tourism from an extractive phenomenon into a regenerative resource for the territory. Through the adoption of the GSTC standard, we strengthened our internal governance, moving beyond the fragmentation between departments to create a cross-cutting steering committee involving the public sector, private sector, and civil society in monitoring new indicators of social, environmental, and cultural wellbeing. In short, we equipped ourselves with a scientific “instruction manual” to stop passively absorbing tourist flows and start governing them as a vital function of the city — ensuring that Siena remains, above all, an authentic community where its own inhabitants want to live, not just a destination admired by the world.
Via Francigena
What changed, in concrete terms, after this journey?
The most significant change was the transition from fragmented management to an integrated system, operationally guided by our plan “For Good Governance of Tourism in Siena,” inspired by Lorenzetti’s famous fresco.
Concretely, we institutionalised stakeholder involvement through regular meetings and questionnaires that feed into a rigorous ESG indicator monitoring system, allowing us to base decisions on objective data rather than intuition. This enables annual impact reporting — a transparency tool that lets citizens verify the real value returned to the territory — while fostering unprecedented collaboration between departments (such as urban planning, waste management, and social services) that previously had no dialogue with the tourism sector.
Sustainability was already a core value of the city, maintained through a centuries-long relationship with the surrounding countryside and through organisations such as the Carbon Neutrality Alliance. However, this journey helped bring order to the various existing initiatives and spread a culture of sustainable tourism.
Siena Cathedral
Which aspects were most complex to address, and what measurable benefits has this work delivered?
Obtaining and maintaining GSTC certification is not a milestone reached through inertia – it is an ongoing commitment. One of the main hurdles is breaking down silos within municipal departments to create an integrated management system. Engaging private businesses is also challenging for a public body. To date, we have worked to disseminate guidelines through targeted training, and we are ready to step up support for businesses, also with the backing of the Chamber of Commerce.
In terms of benefits, Siena recently won the European Green Leaf Award 2027 – in part thanks to the work done under the GSTC standard. The city was recognised for its effective environmental strategies, particularly in expanding public green spaces and improving waste management. The efficiency of the service, the quality of collection processes, and the ability to reduce waste in favour of recycling were among the key strengths of Siena’s candidacy. This ecological transition goes hand in hand with social cohesion and an improvement in residents’ satisfaction with tourism management.
Allegoria del Buon Governo – Ambrogio Lorenzetti 1338
What is the risk, today, for an art city that attracts visitors from around the world, if it chooses not to invest in sustainable tourism management?
For an art city, choosing not to invest in sustainable management today is not just a short-sighted decision — it is a genuine risk of identity and economic “self-consumption.” The real danger is sliding toward an extractive model that turns the historic centre into an empty shell, a “theme park” where gentrification displaces residents and stifles authentic local life, extinguishing the very soul that makes it alive. Without the compass of GSTC certification and a solid strategic plan, the city would end up passively absorbing high-impact, low-value “hit-and-run” tourism, downgrading its global brand and losing competitiveness in a market that, in 2026, rewards destinations capable of demonstrating respect for their social and natural ecosystem.