Review of: Contemporary Christian Travel, Pilgrimage, Practice and Place by Amos S. Ron and Dallen J. Timothy

Book Review of Contemporary Christian Travel, Pilgrimage, Practice and Place, by Amos S. Ron and Dallen J. Timothy

Tourism planning and local development: innovative projects in food and tourism

Over the last few years, food have assumed an increasingly significant role in the dynamics of tourism development of territories, especially in minor areas (i.e. inland regions, mountain villages, etc.). In the perspective of tourism experience, there is a strong correlation between food and tourism development that is not limited to the satisfaction of a basic need but acts primarily as a means of spreading culture. Within the literature, today there is an increased awareness of the cultural significance of food. Hence, food has recently been recognized as an important cultural resource that, through various activities, becomes a crucial factor in promoting tourism in an area. In order to ensure this, it is fundamental that the different stakeholders that interact at the local level have to learn how to plan and design, sharing ideas, goals and strategic vision. In the light of these considerations, the aim of this paper is to demonstrate how territories can generate significant positive impacts in terms of local tourism development through innovative projects related to food. The adopted methodology is the case study, as empirical evidence to investigate the role and impacts of a food related project in territorial enhancement. The project selected as a case study is Tascapan, the first and only integrated platform of online shops of typical products of Aosta Valley, a major alpine tourist destination in North West Italy

The increasing value of Cultural Routes and Religious Itineraries for potential tourism destinations.

The increasing value of Cultural Routes and Religious Itineraries for potential tourism destinations

The Role of Tourists’ Feedback in the Enhancement of Religious Tourism Destinations

Over the last few decades, tourism has faced several challenges and opportunities mostly related to the tremendous rise of online social networks and tourist platforms (e.g. Facebook, Twitter, TripAdvisor, etc.). The revolution brought about by Web 2.0 (or Travel 2.0) has radically changed the behaviour of tourists, who are now able to access information rapidly and to contribute in generating information to share with other users. The advent of the Internet has forced destinations to transform themselves to be more interactive, innovative and efficient as the online consumer is more active, demanding and in control. As a consequence, online reviews are becoming increasingly important, as they represent a significant information source both for the tourists and for the local management of tourism destinations. In this new scenario, religious tourism destinations should make an effort to manage tourists’ feedback, in order to adapt their offer to the needs expressed by their visitors. The aim of this research is to assess: how the ‘Sacred Mount of Oropa’ and ‘Sacred Mount of Orta’ (Piedmont Region, Italy) are perceived as religious destinations by tourists and; how local management should improve the quality of the offered experience based on this analysis. The methodology consists of a qualitative content analysis of a sample of reviews on TripAdvisor (www.tripadvisor.com) - 237 and 243 reviews respectively. TripAdvisor provides detailed, rich and relevant data which includes information about the visitors of the Sacred Mounts and information about their beliefs and expectations within their comments. In accordance with content analysis methodology, the study selected a manual coding process in order to transform non-structured information into a format that allows analysis, which is possible due to the nature of the reviews. This paper presents empirical findings on the importance of online feedback for a religious destination

Religious Events And Event Management: An Opportunity for Local Tourism Development

Religious events represent one of the ancient forms of encounter and should play an important role in enhancing tourism in the areas in which they take place. The aim of the study is to investigate the role of religious events as a key component of local tourism development. The adopted research methodology is primarily based on the gathering and interpretation of qualitative data. The paper considers small and medium sized religious events, analysing their event management process. It focuses on two case studies in northern Italy: the Devotional and Cultural Tourism Exchange of Oropa and the Passion Play of Sordevolo. The paper ha an original approach to the analysis of qualitatove data and it gives a contribution to the debate on events. The paper has 2,584 downaloads since 21 July 2015 to 18 March 2021

Religious Tourism and Event Management: An Opportunity for Local Tourism Development

Religious events represent one of the ancient forms of encounter and should play an important role in enhancing tourism in the areas in which they take place. The aim of the study is to investigate the role of religious events as a key component of local tourism development. The adopted research methodology is primarily based on the gathering and interpretation of qualitative data. The paper considers small and medium sized religious events, analysing their event management process. It focuses on two case studies in northern Italy: the Devotional and Cultural Tourism Exchange of Oropa and the Passion Play of Sordevolo

Via Francigena Mountain Itineraries: the Case of Piacenza Valleys

Religious tourism has experienced a strong growth in recent years. It represents a complex and articulate phenomenon, in which the reasons and proposals related to the devotional and personal sphere are combined with a series of innovative opportunities that help reach a depth knowledge of a territory. The religious motive often means that pilgrims travel along specific routes to visit a number of shrines or even to complete lengthy itineraries. Increasingly, purely religious motives are becoming mixed with more secular forms of religious tourism, which often centre around specific religious sites. In this perspective, faith itineraries can be interpreted as drivers for territorial development able to evaluate the resources, the peculiarities and the identity of each place. This justifies and motivates the increase of several important initiatives which aim to make a significant contribution to the enhancement of cultural heritage and local development. Many of them are related to the most famous European cultural routes. As regard the Via Francigena, various projects are being hatched, highlighting some ‘minor’ ways of pilgrimage: this is what is currently happening in Piacenza Valleys, in the north of Italy, the case study of the research presented in this paper