No. 1/2 (2019)

Proposals for ideas for the development of tourism are frequently promoted through strategic planning documents, published under various forms and structures, how as happened in recent years. The document proposes a reflection on two examples of strategic planning for tourism development elaborated at different levels: 1. the National Strategic Plan of Tourism (PST) 2017-2022 which represents an example of strategic planning elaborated at national level and which has used a direct involvement of institutional and operational stakeholders as actors in the sector; 2. some cases of "internal areas" that have declined at local level their own strategy for tourism development within the National Strategies for Internal Areas (SNAI). The objective of this reflection is to offer a contribution to the question of coherence between strategies and actions. This coherence is influenced by numerous factors, among which the complex and often precarious balance between demand (needs, prospects) and supply (specific measures, actions) for development. In this framework, can be considered among the methodological keys to consolidate the relationship between strategies and actions. The modalities and intensity of listening to the actors involved in various ways in the strategic planning process and in the subsequent implementation of the interventions.

This paper presents a reflection on the gap between the reality of the market and the imagine of the same, listing some measures that were proposed by the institutions during the course of the twenty-first century which did not have pursued the planned objectives and have proved to be a failure. For this reason, while the market perceived by the operators is the real one, the market perceived by the institutions is an imaginary market that does not exist in reality. Today, to pursue the development of tourism, it is necessary to bring back the market of institutions closer to that of operators.

Rete Destinazione Sud was born to connect territories, enterprises and products by creating Destinations, following an organisational model. Its primary objective is the promotion and the commercialisation of the entire offer of territories, accompanied by the construction of a Destination Reputation. According to the model, a given territory becomes a Destination when there is a shared governance and a strategic development project is created. Destinations are to be identified as vast territorial aggregations capable of attracting visitors not only on the touristic point of view, but also on a broader range of services that are necessary to provide a dynamic and interactive experience. SOUTH ITALY is a project whose aim is to put together all of the Destinations of South Italy to compete on a global scale with a brand that is strong enough to attract and generate an online reputation and an online marketplace.

The growth of events importance has become clearer for some time now, both at national and international level. They are elements of tourist attractiveness and entertainment that determine also an “important social impact on the hosting community because they contribute to the formation of a strong sense of belonging and a sense of place” . As Resciniti and Fortuna noted, “the basic principle is that value creation through events is strictly linked to the ability to involve people on the cognitive, emotional, sensorial level, giving them the possibility to live experiences based on their needs and wishes, coherently to their expectations. In particular, this research is a work in progress on the empirical case “Matera European Capital of Culture 2019”: it focuses on the local people involvement and the value created by the big event. A participative process can result more efficient and sustainable in the long term than a top down management. In this case, thanks to its election as “European Capital of Culture 2019”, Matera enhances its cultural value and moreover achieves a new model of territorial development.

Rural tourism is characterised by a particularly strong link between services and the territory's offer, since the quality of the territory's environmental, social and cultural components does not represent a background cover, but is essential for the qualification of assets. Rural tourism is, in fact, directly linked to what are called 'rurality resources': according to the most widely accepted definition, it is a set of resources that, in addition to those of agriculture and the processing of its products, also includes cultural and artistic components in rural areas. These resources are classified in terms of rural territorial capital, a transversal, dynamic and evolving environment that includes the human, cultural, economic, social, institutional and symbolic capital of a particular rural area. The stage of territorial diagnosis is crucial in order to identify those resources that can represent the rural tourism offer and contribute to increasing the area's competitiveness. To this end, the final result of this research is the construction of a WebGis, an extraordinary geographic information management tool that offers tourists a complete information system tailored to their needs.

The quantification of tourism through Big Data Analysis is the new frontier of statistical, territorial and management analysis, based on the use of large data sources. Currently, the most important jobs are above all those in the managerial field (even "company" is fine), although they may have an important utility in territorial analysis, because the tourism sector finds, in the Big Data (BD), ideal characteristics to improve and enrich the estimates. The case study of the Puglia Region will be analyzed to highlight two aspects: mainly, because during the development of the project have emerged the fragility of Big Data and how an algorithm not well calibrated is a sufficient condition to make the data not usable for the purposes of specific research. Secondly, the project of Puglia Region was among the first in Italy to integrate the BD with the traditional sources for the analysis of regional tourism and allowed, in this way, to compare the number of tourist presences detected by official sources and by the tourists physically present on the territory in the same period, demonstrating the gap between real and official tourism.

This research aims to analyse how a local community perceives the impact of tourism and which socio-cultural, economic and environmental factors influence the formation of perceptions, attitudes and participation. In particular, the survey focuses on households residing in small towns of historical interest (belonging to the Club "I Borghi più belli d'Italia", in Sicily, Italy) which, until recently, have been isolated from tourism and recently are experiencing a good moment thanks to sustainable tourism and membership of the Club. Multivariate analysis is used for the survey. The study showed that there is widespread awareness that belonging to the Club has brought and can continue to bring benefits to the area and to the development of local tourism activity. The positive consequences are linked to economic reasons and the protection and conservation of the area. In general, people who have positive perceptions of the importance of sustainable tourism development are more willing to support and participate in future development. The proposed model can be applied to any destination to help manage residents' perceptions, attitudes and participation in tourism development.

The work presents the case study of Castelmezzano and Pietrapertosa, small towns in the Lucanian inland which, starting from an unfavorable context, have built a solid tourism economy in compliance with environmental restrictions. The paper investigates the territory as a disadvantaged area whose morphological characteristics have for decades determined its marginalization. The study then analyzes the process of resilience triggered by the launch of the Flight of the Angel, an attraction that has promoted the socio-economic development of the area by exploiting the territory’s physical barriers. The analysis ends by explaining the strategic role of participatory participation in balancing opposite interests such as the protection of both biodiversity and economic interests.