Ecomuseums (on Clean Energy), Cycle Tourism and Civic Crowdfunding: A New Match for Sustainability?

An ecomuseum is an \u2018instrument\u2019 to share the interests of a region and protect its cultural, historical and natural heritage. Cycle tourism is a sustainable type of tourism. Civic crowdfunding is a method of raising funds from a community for the fulfilment of civic initiatives. Starting from the literature on the link between cycle tourism and sustainability, the interaction between renewable energy resources and tourism, and finally the place-based dimension of a civic crowdfunding campaign, the purpose of this study is to show that an ecomuseum focused on clean energy has the potential to attract cycle tourists, increase the numbers of funders, as well as attract the interest of the municipality, not-for-profit associations and energy and tourism firms, and thus significantly enhance its beneficial effects on sustainability from economic, social and environmental points of view. This study employed an action research method to gain in-depth knowledge of this issue, as well as a qualitative case study approach to present and discuss the results. The principal result of this study is the identification of a potential way to create sustainability, via the match between an ecomuseum devoted to clean energy, cycle tourism and civic crowdfunding

The Impact of Information and Communication Technology on the Tourism Sector

Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has changed the global businesses environment by a wide range of tools, methodologies and functions, facilitating the strategic management and supporting firms to achieve a long term competitive advantage. The aim of this paper is to provide an overview of the new applications of Information Communication Technology in tourism industry, the contribution of ICT to the promotion of the tourist product, as well as the potential to the tourism management and the process of decision-making. One important tool, which helps in making decisions in the field of tourism economy, is the Geographic Information System (GIS), which provides a comprehensible representation of the statistical figures of the tourism economy by facilitating decision-making on tourism policy. In this paper is presented some tourist financial figures and their visualization through graphs by Geographic Information System

Archaeological Sites and Local Renaissance: Enlightening Italy’s Inner Rural Areas The Case Study of the 21 Villages in the Madonie Park, Sicily

: In Italian inner rural areas, archaeology emerges as the thread that connects past and present, revealing the cultural and historical roots of often overlooked small villages. These settlements, like the Madonie District and its 21 villages, nestled in picturesque landscapes, hold archaeological treasures that, if properly rehabilitated and valorized, can trigger a social, economic, and cultural revival. Archaeology can play a pivotal role in reigniting the vitality of these communities with the contribution of technological innovation. Using augmented and virtual reality and emerging technologies, it is possible to immerse oneself in antiquity and have immersive experiences that allow the perception of inner rural areas history in new ways that revitalize existing sites but also enable the experience of what no longer exists, digitally reconstructing structures and realities lost over the centuries. This can attract visitors eager to uncover the authentic charm and intrinsic history of these places and can transform them into smart villages

A collection of narrative practices on cultural heritage with innovative technologies and creative strategies

[Abstract] The H2020 project rurAllure, “Promotion of rural museums and heritage sites in the vicinity of European pilgrimage routes” (2021-2023) aims to enrich pilgrims’ experiences with the creation of meaningful cultural products focused on the lesser-known heritage sites of rural areas that are not found on pilgrimage routes, but in their surroundings. One of the project goals is to create contents and narratives to be offered to pilgrims over successive days with the integration of state-of-the-art technology. This way, hidden rural heritage will be discoverable and pilgrims will have the opportunity to actively engage with rural places nearby, their local communities, identity, and culture. The latter will no longer be passive witnesses, but active participants in transnational networks of shared history and living heritage. The rurAllure project aims to develop a new concept of mobile guide for pilgrims that will present rural heritage sites and activities of interest along with information of transportation and accommodation to help movement from and back to pilgrimage routes, as well as cohesive narratives to be consumed along the way, focused on four pilots: literary heritage on the ways to Santiago de Compostela, thermal heritage and others on the ways to Rome, ethnographic heritage on the ways to Trondheim, and natural heritage on the ways to Csíksomlyó. To facilitate the pilots’ brainstorming in the creation of multimedia contents, we developed a review of narrative models on cultural heritage storytelling. In this paper, we present the results, a collection of 22 case studies we analyzed with a common structure, from which six distinctive groups of narrative practices emerge: sound-walks, wearable guides, context-aware games, simulations, digital exhibitions, and cultural wayfinding. All cases studies disrupt traditional notions of storytelling consumption and foster new relationships between people and places of interest that may lead to advancements in the pilgrimage context. The present review provides a collection of best practices and actions that utilize the latest digital technologies and innovative strategies for producing meaningful narratives, mainly about cultural heritage sites. All of them are focused on the active engagement of users with particular locations of interest, landmarks, structures, objects, or intangible expressions. By doing so, their creators try to enhance tourists’ experiences while they explore or travel to places with cultural, natural, or historical significance. This state-of-the-art collection was developed within the H2020 project rurAllure, “Promotion of rural museums and heritage sites in the vicinity of European pilgrimage routes” (2021-2023). The project is focused on attracting en-route pilgrims to hidden or lesser-known rural museums and heritage sites located near four European pilgrimage routes: Santiago de Compostela, Rome, Trondheim, and Csíksomlyó. With this collection, our aim is to develop the project in the creation of multimedia contents and multimodal narratives for people that make their way to these pilgrimage destinations based on an initial, precise approach to the latest actions in the field

Tourist mobility at coastal mass destinations: implications for sustainability

The aim of this paper is to analyse the spatial behaviour of mass tourism demand in coastal destinations and its implications from the point of view of sustainable tourism development. The paper is based on primary research carried out in one of the main Mediterranean tourist destinations, Benidorm (Spain). This research involved the use of Global Positioning Systems (GPS) devices for the tracking of a sample of 257 tourists (from Spain and United Kingdom). Although the research has an experimental basis, these advanced technologies allow new approaches to spatial analysis in order to achieve a better understanding of tourist mobility at coastal destinations. Until now, most studies of intradestination movements have been applied to urban and cultural destinations, where the points of interest and tourist routes are easily identifiable. However, spatial behaviour of mass tourism in coastal destinations has rarely been studied in detail using new tracking technologies. While tourist movements may seem, a priori, predictable, the identification of mobility patterns offers interesting results about the main characteristics of the tourist experience, the relationship with the urban model, the use of public and private spaces, the perception of the destination, and the differences between segments of demand. The conclusions of the study are relevant from the methodological and theoretical point of view, and include some recommendations for planning and destination management in the context of sustainability.This research has been carried out within the framework of the project “New approaches for tourism destinations planning and management: conceptualization, case studies and problems. Definition of smart tourist destinations models” (CSO2014-59193-R) under the Spanish National R&D&I Plan financed by the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness

SSAT 2021: abstracts of the International Conference on Smart, Sustainable, Social, and Accessible Tourism

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Tourism Diversification and Its Implications for Smart Specialisation

The complex nature of tourism, its strong inter-sectoral relationships and regional dimension challenge innovation. The advent of smart specialisation, which focuses on regional diversification across sectors, offers considerable and hitherto largely unrealized potential for developing innovative tourism policies within this new agenda. This paper addresses the understudied concept of tourism diversification and its unrealized relevance to smart specialisation, which has emerged as a mainstream logic underpinning EU Cohesion Policy reforms and has diffused into other OECD countries. It provides a theoretical framework for studying product, market, sectoral and regional diversification as well as related variety in tourism. Some policy implications for realizing tourism diversification and for the potential role of tourism in smart specialisation strategies in particular are suggested

Heritage and new communication technologies: development perspectives on the basis of the Via Francigena experience

Tourism market trends are changing in relation to new communication technology dynamics, thus, web tourism 4.0 is providing new tools and new marketing approaches for Destination Management and Destination Marketing. In this scenario, slow tourism, with its multiple tourist offer, is oriented to a pro-sumer approach, based on strategic communication marketing. This paper wants to propose some marketing perspectives for walking itineraries, such as the Via Francigena, on the basis of video marketing tools and, in particular, by taking advantage the positive effects of cinetourism on the local tourism systems. The descriptive methodology of research analyse, firstly, the potential of new technologies for slow tourism; then, the Via Francigena, as a world-famous slow travel product, in terms of both a real and virtual experience. A recent pilgrimage experience on the Via Francigena is also described by emphasising its video marketing elements. Finally, some reflections on the role of communication strategies for tourism opens new hypothetical perspectives for cinetourism as a relevant Destination Management vision towards some slow tourism products