No. 4 (2021)

The roots' tourism represents a tourism sector characterised by great potential, largely unexpressed and still little exploited. This research aims to provide useful reflections on the development of a sector that is still insufficiently known and may have important developments. The catchment area that can be part of the roots' tourism is constantly increasing due to the dynamics of external migration that have historically characterized our country. The tourism of the roots, just as a reflection of the past, prefers middle-aged people who, in addition to the availability of time and resources, have a strong identity vocation. But the available statistical information fails to define this phenomenon's characteristics exhaustively. Moreover, roots' tourism seems to express a different idea of tourism, less linked to leisure tourism. The tourism of the roots is, in fact, mainly linked to the culture of the territories. The narrative, also through digitalisation, becomes an opportunity to know their roots in a sustainability perspective because there can be no future without knowing their past.

Enhancing the value of local food and wine production through roots tourism and, at the same time, stimulating this tourist segment thanks to the attractiveness of typical and traditional local cuisine means carrying out tourism and place marketing projects to sell an area with all its specific features, including food and wine, to a market segment that, more than others, can be attracted by them thanks to an ancestral link with its roots. The paper addresses this issue, considering that strengthening this link and making it long-lasting is important to develop this form of tourism and encourage demand for typical local products that often struggle to be known and appreciated, especially abroad.

Tourism is the third socio-economic activity of the European Union and constitutes an important engine of development. At the same time, tourism is essential not only from an economic and social point of view but also for its strong effects on the environment. For this reason, the environment and the territory are both primary elements for tourism and its development. This contribution discusses the need for sustainable tourism and, within this vision, addresses the theme of "return tourism" with the connected enhancement of small villages. This contribution examines not only socio-economic aspects but also discusses tourism-territorial policies to be implemented in a sustainable tourism perspective, both in the immediate and the long term.

The aim of this research, based on a structured questionnaire, is to profile the tourists of the origins, explore their attachment to Italy, their cultural identity and the motivations related to their travels in the diaspora, identify a communication strategy and increase this tourism segment of niche that offers unique emotions and sensations. In particular, the frequency and reasons for their travel, self-perception during their stay in Italy and their definition of “home” are investigated. The study results show that trips to Italy are motivated by the desire to find cultural roots, relocate cultural identity, and visit relatives and friends. Everyone has a good sense of belonging to the Italian culture and identity. It also emerged that by demographic characteristics, experiences, and emotions, second-generation immigrants could be grouped into three clusters: nostalgic, explorers and lovers of Italian culture.

The paper aims to build and consolidate cooperation networks between the Apulian associations in the world, public administrations and private operators in the tourism sector, adopting a coordinated marketing strategy to stimulate and satisfy the demand for identity research. The presidents and members of three associations were interviewed. From the interviews, these associations are recognised as having the role of preserving traditions and popular culture. The Apulian associations abroad create important Apulian showcases worldwide; they are essential vehicles for promoting tourism in the area. Adopting network logic is recognised but not creating a network that brings together associations, public administrators and private operators.

Recounting the phenomenon of returning tourism in Sicily means not being satisfied with the evidence of success, so striking the numbers as unexpected and unpredictable, but getting into its reasons and grasping the motivations and dynamics. It was therefore chosen to enhance some virtuous cases of policies that encourage return tourism with a particular focus on the initiative of the so-called "Houses at 1 euro", which is found in Sambuca di Sicilia, his most fertile test bed and the star of Hollywood Lorraine Bracco, his most powerful sounding board. The initiatives that encourage return tourism, especially that of the "Houses at 1 euro", are concentrated on a comprehensive vision of the territory and the forms and ways to govern it to reactivate sustainable and sustainable development dynamics.

The article aims to analyse the tourist potential of two houses in Messina that jumped to the altars of the news for a broad debate about the origins of the first lady of the United States, Jill Jacobs Biden. The two villages, located in the heart of the Peloritani and a few kilometres from Messina, delimit the municipal territory to the north towards the Tyrrhenian Sea. Immersed in a suggestive nature crowned by hills and a panorama that unites the Strait to the Aeolian Islands, Gesso and Castanea are the protagonists of this elaborate, which considers the research and memories of old scholars of the past as well as the return tourism of the descendants of those emigrants who were forced to leave their community in search of fortune in America.

The article examines some issues of constitutional legitimacy related to regional laws that encourage tourism roots. The undoubted laws of unconstitutionality and the relevant rulings of the Constitutional Court are discussed. The reflection aims to understand the limits of the Regions in regulating the "tourism of the roots" or, in other words, to control and encourage the phenomenon while respecting the constitutional principles.

The limitation in the relations between people caused by the pandemic today pushes more and more travellers in search of experiences and interactions with the territories, especially those excluded from the current production processes and the dominant market logic. In this context, the tourism of the roots or return tourism is motivated by a need to rediscover their origins, discover them, or trace them in places related to the history of travellers or their families. We, therefore, describe the main dimensions of the relationship tourism model so that it can be applied to root tourism.