Cultural tourism: the “minor” art center in Italy.

• Main Author: Vita Carmen
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: AfricaJournals 2018-11-01
• Series: African Journal of Hospitality, Tourism and Leisure
• Subjects: Cultural tourism; cultural heritage; cultural tourism in Italy; Borghi d’Italia
• Online Access: https://www.ajhtl.com/uploads/7/1/6/3/7163688/article_7_vol_7_6__2018.pdf

At a time of increasing globalization, the protection, conservation, interpretation and presentation of the heritage and cultural diversity of any particular place or region is an important challenge for people everywhere (Icomos, 1999). Therefore, culture and cultural tourism are taking on a new meaning in the context of economic globalization. From an economic standpoint, cultural heritage consists of heritage assets that also incorporate a cultural value that goes beyond the intrinsic economic value (Savarese, 2005). The public must also preserve this cultural value through a set of economic activities that promote protection, conservation and consumption. Cultural tourism can play a propulsive action in countries characterized by a great number of relevant sites that can attract international tourists. For these reasons, promoting management and business models to increase the effectiveness of cultural heritage as an economic production factor is one of the most pressing issues currently faced by the public and private sector at the international level for its contribution to economic growth and sustainable development. In particular, smaller centers are gathering particular interest. They are heterogeneous for dimension, historical and cultural traditions and life style, but they also have characteristics and precise identities that remarkably influence the new settlement and location dynamics. These dynamics often answer to logical searches of culturally attractive cities and high quality comfortable atmospheres. During the last years, the debate on this topic has had a growth interest. It however, slowly evolves towards three different meanings: i) as observable evidence, because of the curved nature of mobility of goods and people, and the fast spread of the technologies of information and communication; ii) as a theoretical model, to exceed the traditional interpretation of tourism introducing the analysis of the variety and diversity of the present functions in the cultural sites, and of their distribution and their relations (Costa and Manente, 2000); iii) as objective of policymakers, because this kind of tourism can be promote a fair and sustainable territorial development agenda (Martelloni, 2004).