Tourism in smart villages as an enhancement of rural areas

Abstract

The purpose of this work is to verify whether Italian smart villages are attractive on a tourist level. This article has the task of analyzing and highlighting the health status of rural villages and checking which and how many of them have evolved toward a sustainable rural village concept, defined in the literature by the name smart village. The study was conducted through the analysis of the projects applied within the two smart villages under study. The two villages analyzed focus on future-oriented development and identify already integrated urban areas as a test bed, capable of attracting the population, workers, and tourists. Both villages have common objectives such as, for example, the transformation from rural villages into smart villages, overcoming the state of depopulation, making them attractive on a tourist level, and pursuing urban development strategies, guaranteeing territorial sustainability. The urban planning process and energy policies are integrated with the Smart Village policies, whose meeting point and strength are represented by the technology applied to the city. The method brings to both experiences multiple points of advantage dictated by the fact that the methodology allows all interested parties of citizens to actively participate in the political life and not only of the city. The successful application of transformation policies in these cities can be used as a future test bed to enable other cities to develop and evolve from classic rural villages to smart villages.