A historic opportunity for Turin and for Italy
Turin will host the 2025 edition of The World’s 50 Best Restaurants, the most prestigious and influential global event in fine dining. For the first time in its history, the celebration is coming to Italy, thanks to the collaboration with the Piedmont Region, and will place the country’s culinary and cultural heritage under the international spotlight.
According to Roberta Garibaldi, who helped lead the candidacy process together with Federico Ceretto and Massimo Bottura before the Piedmont Region took over, the event is expected to generate more than 100 million euros in advertising value. It is therefore a major opportunity not only for Turin, but for the whole Italian system.
Three levels of impact for Italy
The first level is media visibility. The event will offer Italy an extraordinary global showcase, strengthening its positioning as a destination of food and wine excellence. Attention will not focus only on awarded restaurants, but also on Italian territories and local products.
The second level concerns the physical presence of around 1,200 guests, including some of the most influential international actors in the gastronomic sector. Comparable editions, such as Valencia, generated direct benefits estimated at 5 million dollars through international flights, overnight stays and meals consumed locally.
The third and most strategic level concerns the extension of visitors’ stay in Italy, encouraging them to discover lesser-known places and experience the country in a richer, more authentic and more distributed way, including outside the high season.
The real value lies in the long-term positioning effect
As Garibaldi points out, The World’s 50 Best Restaurants has long played a central role in the global development of gastronomy, helping new cuisines and territories gain prominence, from Northern Europe to Latin America. Italy now has the opportunity to relaunch its image through a shared long-term national strategy.
The 2025 edition will include a rich programme of public and professional side events, from the 50 Best Talks forum to collaborative dinners and celebratory gatherings showcasing Italian excellence.
“A shared effort is needed between institutions, businesses and associations to fully exploit the potential of The World’s 50 Best Restaurants 2025. Only in this way can we turn our international guests into genuine ambassadors of the Italy brand around the world,” says Roberta Garibaldi.
Like Expo 2015, but for the image of Italian dining
The importance of the event goes well beyond Turin and Piedmont. Much like Expo 2015, it has the potential to become a key moment for the image of the entire country. Its symbolic value is further reinforced by the possible proclamation of Italian cuisine as UNESCO heritage within the same year.
The real challenge now is not only to host the event successfully, but to use it as a lever for long-term reputation, tourism attractiveness and stronger international storytelling around Italian food culture.
