Towards an integrated tourism model for Campania. Local tourism and the Cilento area. – The 2019 health emergency has produced severe impacts on the tourist economy. The first signs of a recovery in the sector came from short-range and short-term trips to uncrowded locations later defined as “proximity tourism”. In Campania, some of these small villages are distributed in the hinterland of geographical areas peripheral to the main relational circuits, such as the Cilento National Park district. This area has great attraction, as it is a short distance from the Salerno coast. Starting from this consideration, the contribution intends to focus attention on the current configuration and future prospects of the sea routes that connect the coastal capitals of Campania to the numerous coastal centers of Campania. Then, reflecting on the possible interactions between “proximity tourism” and “foreign tourism”, in development in the post-pandemic phase, the contribution pays attention to the phenomenon of the rediscovery of the attractiveness of smaller villages, to show how an intensification of maritime routes can contribute to sustainable tourism development, not only from a “proximity” perspective, but by intervening in the rebalancing of the regional tourist movement.

The participatory process of community tourism in Oscata for the enhancement of Alta Irpinia. - Tourism is one of the most disruptive phenomena on a global scale, both as concerns intensity in terms of the flows of people it moves and for the economic, social and environmental transformations it brings. The exploitation of territorial resources and the effects tourism produces can at times result irreversible on the environmental system of reference. This element has often been underestimated by the tourism industry remaining unable to prevent the negative consequences of mass tourism which, on the one hand, damages resources and, on the other, corrodes the socio-territorial fabric. Consequently, a rethinking of the processes of development in the sector is necessary from the perspective of sustainability through local community participation.
The paper, based on the experience of Oscata, a rural village situated in Alta Irpinia, aims to reflect on alternative forms of tourism such as community tourism which welcomes visitors offering them hospitality underpinned by emotional and culturally interesting involvement thus triggering integration and participation in the local community's routine activities and mainstream social events.

Climate Crisis and Tourism in the Maira and Vermenagna Valleys (Piedmont Alps). – This study examines the transformations driven by climate change in the alpine context, focussing on the Maira and Vermenagna Valleys in the Piedmont Alps, two areas marked by environmental vulnerability and significant exposure to ongoing climatic and socio-economic pressures. The research explores how rising temperatures and decreasing snowfall are significantly reshaping the local tourism supply, requiring a reorganisation of the sector.
Combining in-depth interviews with local stakeholders and quantitative analysis of tourism and climate data, the study reveals a growing awareness of the phenomenon and its socioeconomic impacts. The climate crisis has exposed the unsustainability of traditional ski-based tourism, prompting a shift toward more resilient models such as experiential, outdoor, and cul-tural tourism.
While the Maira Valley shows greater adaptability thanks to an already di-versified offer, the Vermenagna Valley, historically reliant on alpine skiing, struggles to transition. The findings highlight the urgent need for locally coordinated strategies that integrate sustainability, cultural identity, and innovation.

The new opportunities offered by immersive and inclusive technologies to represent and rediscover the complex relationship between human communities and water resources. – In order to know, represent and interpret the complex relationship between water landscapes and human communities the new technologies (immersive cartography, three-dimensional web, augmented reality, 3D environments) represent extraordinary and functional tools both for research and for territorial information and promotion actions in terms of tourism. Evidence of this is the project “Tourist Itineraries to Discover the Waters of Italy”, conceived and promoted by the GECOAGRI LANDITALY Interuniversity Research Group Association and financed by ACEA, aimed at promoting a process of water resource enhancement in the dimension of environmental, economic and social sustainability. The authors through some exemplifications and using a methodology of operational analysis, characterized by new syntaxes, reconstruct with the help of augmented reality and immersive technologies, as well as the canonical geocartographic and documentary sources, the material and immaterial dimension of the water resource in the Conca reatina, Umbilicus Italiae, where the sociocultural dynamics underlying the relationship between water and population, narrate experiences of vulnerability and development, participation and conflict, protection and threat. Through 10 ten interactive and implementable totem-stations, it is possible to embark on an inclusive and participatory journey that allows people to explore even inaccessible places. Not only video and audio, historical and thematic cartographies, photos and three-dimensional images, but also drone shots from which to observe from above what nature and culture have achieved and, if necessary, to land in particular places reconstructed through augmented reality that allows one to observe them as they were and as they are today, making clear the processes of transformation of which signs and sedimentations remain in the landscape palimpsest.

Strategic planning and local tourism: the case of Grecìa Salentina. – The XXVI edition of the Report on Italian Tourism from the Institute of Sciences of Cultural Heritage of the National Research Council (CNR ISPC) revealed that in 2022 (Marasco et al., 2023), out of the 70.1 billion euros spent by Italian tourists within the country, only 15.2 billion euros remained within the visitors' home regions. This marked a decrease of about 0.5 percentage points compared to 2019, showing a negative trend for local tourism. Despite this, proximity tourism shows strong potential, especially in marginal and inland areas, which can contribute to these places' development and cultural awareness. To achieve this, it is important to integrate local tourism into a long-term process led by the local community, emphasizing environmental, cultural, economic, and social sustainability as outlined in Agenda 2030. This approach is exemplified by the Strategic Plan for Tourism Development for the Union of Municipalities of the Grecìa Salentina, which aims to promote sustainable tourism.

Urban green spaces as proximity tourism destinations: the potential of the Maredolce - La Favara complex between care practices and heritage enhancement. – Proximity tourism allows residents to experience familiar places in new ways and to perceive otherness in an elsewhere that does not imply distance. In urban settings, green spaces offer an evocative appeal that can be emphasized when combined with interest in the presence of heritage emergencies. Therefore, it is possible to reflect on the potential of green areas in urban settings and the implications for tourism and sustainability challenges. Green spaces in cities generate crucial connections that strengthen communities while contributing to local development. This article aims to analyze the role of heritage communities in the care and enhancement of urban green spaces as destinations with the aim of promoting critical tools useful for more equitable and sustainable planning of green space enhancement strategies for tourism. This research explores the case of the Maredolce - La Favara complex (Palermo) with a qualitative methodology that included participant observation and field survey. The green space is subject to processes of care put in place for decades by a group of inhabitants who work for the enhancement and involvement of the area in the representation and governance policies of the city. The processes and dynamics related to the context under study are analyzed to highlight how heritage walks, as effective practices of proximity tourism, can contribute to sustainable urban development that enhances local in-stances of signification and affective belonging to places.

Territorial gap and sustainability of tourism in Italy. Proximity tourism as a possibility? – Tourism is one of the most relevant factor of impact on development and sustainability. In Italy tourism generated strong territorial gaps, as we’ll show through several maps of tourism densities, migration dynamic, house rents and basic services levels of accessibility. This paper is aimed to discuss the near-home tourism as a possible key of sustainable development, with particular focus on Apennines in Lazio and Abruzzo regions.

Nearby tourism and local development. The unexpressed potential of the Lazio lakes. – In the last few years, due to global events, traveling has become increasingly complex. These difficulties have produced the birth of a new type of tourism: slow and proximity tourism. A type of tourism directed to nearby and little-known places. a type of tourism looking for outdoor activities, uncontaminated territories, a different way of appreciating local culture and the landscape. The Lazio Region is a large container of this type of tourism: historic villages, religious destinations, typical products and a landscape rich in rivers and lakes. In 2021, ARPA Lazio detected the presence of 20 lakes, different in geomorphological and hydrogeological characteristics, located throughout the regional territory, which are perfect for welcoming tourists looking for slow and proximity tourism. These lakes are exploited for tourism purposes only to a small extent. The objective of this contribution is to start a reflection on what has been done and what should be done, placing lakes at the center of sustainable development projects.

App GIS-based per le Smart Tourist Destinations nel Governatorato di Muscat, Oman. – Le ICT e il turismo giocano ruoli fondamentali nello sviluppo delle economie globali emergenti, offrendo opportunità e strumenti strategici per promuovere la crescita delle mete. Le Destinazioni Turistiche Smart (STD) utilizzano strumenti e tecnologie disponibili per co-creare valore ed esperienze immersive per i turisti, generando nel contempo profitti e benefici per le organizzazioni e la destinazione nel suo complesso.
Il presente contributo espone nella sua totalità le fasi dello sviluppo di un’applicazione per smartphone progettata per l’esplorazione del territorio dell’Oman, comprendente le sue diverse risorse naturali e culturali, infrastrutture turistiche e strutture ricettive. La metodologia impiegata comprende la raccolta dati da fonti primarie, la georeferenziazione di numerosi punti di riferimento naturali, culturali e ricreativi, e l’utilizzo degli strumenti Arc-GIS e Google Earth per l’elaborazione dei dati. L’applicazione sviluppata si dimostra essere uno strumento intelligente e reattivo, in grado di soddisfare le esigenze del turismo esperienziale. Offre agli utenti la possibilità di personalizzare iti-nerari in linea con i loro gusti, preferenze ed esigenze. Integrando tecnologie all’avanguardia e dati geografici, l’applicazione per l’esplorazione dell’Oman porta le esperienze turistiche a nuove vette, mettendo in evidenza le diverse attrazioni del paese. Questo articolo specifico presenta le considerazioni finali alla luce di una serie di cambiamenti ambientali e territoriali che sono avvenuti durante la fase di validazione.

Local community involvement, sustainability and tourism. – In contemporary societies a central aspect of observation is that of marginality, which characterizes various social groups. The topic thus occupies a prominent role within economic, social and geographic research and continues to be the subject of constant investigations aimed at exploring its various connotations.
The majority of the EU population has chosen to live in urban areas, and from this urbanization come effects that extend beyond city boundaries, such as on tourism.
The contribution therefore aims to offer reflection on a best practice, that of the city of Nantes, in which the participation of the local community in the benefits derived from tourism offers an example of a number of elements of project management, such as the construction of the network of local actors, governance of the territory, product creation, and marketing, which assume strategic relevance for the success of a tourism offer, from which citizens are co-participants.

The places of the comedy along the via Casilina. – This contribution begins with a re-reading and re-interpretation of the Divina Commedia from a geographical perspective. Operation useful for capturing symbols and signs that still manifest themselves today in those places mentioned, in the Commedy. These places, located along the via Casilina, if put into a system, outline a potential itinerary dedicated to the figure of Dante Alighieri, representing a piece of the mosaic of routes that structure the network of routes in the territory of the Lazio sub-apennines (via Francigena in southern Italy, way of st. Thomas, food and wine itineraries of the cesanese lands, path of the parks, etc.).

Potential Impacts of NRRP Investments in Italian Mono-functional or Desertified Realities: Threats and Opportunities. – The contribution aims to reflect on the impact of PNRR plans and programs with particular attention to the sustainability of rural and mountain tourist regions, highlighting territorial criticalities and suggesting greater emphasis on the concept of adaptation and the possible role for activities related to education for the territory. The PNRR provides for a € 6.68 billion loan in the “tourism and culture” sector, which will make it possible to develop innovative actions to implement local development through the new ecological transition criterion. Much emphasis is placed on the digital transition and physical measures of renewal. Many realities of those compatible with these funds fall within rural and mountain areas, often characterized by negative situations up to conditions of real demographic and economic desertification. The poor economic and social sustainability of many peripheral and mono-functional territories, investigated by recent studies in the field, seems to link the transformation of these areas to actions of economic adaptation and diversification linked to climate change, with respect to which climate maps suggest an increase of the impacts in the coming decades. An investment in these areas, perhaps aimed at restoring or physical-functional de-velopment actions, runs the risk of producing little benefits if it is not accompanied by new forms of social, economic and even demographic attractiveness. The systemic vision can make it possible to operate in a more suitable way to the specific local territorial system, while the development of educational paths to the territory open to stakeholders active in the field can increase the possibility of investment success through the sharing and production of open local knowledge to the reproduction and renewal of territorial values as a project for the future of the subjects who live there and who work there.

"Tourism, communities, territories. Frontiers of sustainability"

The Italian Small Islands in the PNRR Missions. A vision of the future. – The paper aims to understand the possible effects of the PNRR on the Italian Small Islands. The relationship between insiders and external actors, as well as the relationship of interdependence with the mainland, highlight the Italian Small Islands as a promising “laboratory” for investigation, not only as case studies but also as a complex and articulated spatial and territorial context in which some of the general dynamics tend to be emphasised. The peripheral dimension of the Italian Small Islands (Turco, 1980) has meant that since the Second World War they have been included among the “underdeveloped areas” and subject to the interventions of the Cassa per il Mezzogiorno. Within this scenario, the smaller islands were the subject of specific funding or actions, in some cases emphasising their dependence on the mainland. This dependence has also been recorded in the policies of the National Strategy for Internal Areas (SNAI), which classifies island municipalities as peripheral or ultraperipheral, without however taking into account deeper local dynamics that effectively cancel out these conditions of peripheralisation. The PNRR proposes some missions explicitly addressed to small island territories, such as the achievement of a circular economy, forms of development that dialogue between tourism and sustainability, but also more general actions aimed, for example, at the mitigation of territorial gaps. The paper seeks to connect PNRR, tourism development and the challenge of Small Islands’ seasonal geographies.

The National Recovery and Resilience Plan: recovery of inner areas for sustainable tourism and economy. – European Commission and European Parliament have issued the Recovery Plan, also called Next Generation EU, to revive the finance and the economy of European countries compromised by the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic. The Italian Government has developed a specific plan for the recovery of inner areas with particular attention to the redevelopment of the villages: very emblematic, in this sense, The National Borough Plan, promoted and managed directly by The Italian Ministry of Culture. The Recovery of inner areas perfectly coincides whit the great challenges of contemporary society: ecological transition, climate change, environmental sustainability, better quality of life. Concepts such as slow philosophy, slow food, slow tourism are increasingly popular and form the basis for a profound cultural change, to build a slow life that is more compatible with the needs and sensibilities of humanity.

The Mission Tourism and Culture in the PNRR: Unrepeatable Opportunity for the Sustainability of Italian Tourist Development. – The pandemic Covid19 has brought down tourism and the Italian Government, thanks to the funds made available by the European Union through the NextGenerationEU programme, has given to this sector a strong boost in the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR), granting a series of investments and financing useful for a new restarting, included in the culture and tourism mission. The article, therefore, will analyze the main guidelines on which this mission is based, trying to outline the future scenarios, highlighting the costs and benefits for Italy as a whole and for inland areas and old towns, which are currently very compromised due to the sharp demographic decrease and the ageing of the population. The funds available in the PNRR could be used to launch a different phase in Italy’s tourism development, completely overturning the geography of flows that until now have been concentrated on two main routes, namely cities of art and seaside tourism, with consequent environmental and social impacts. In conclusion, the PNRR may constitute a major turning point in this sector, allowing for a spread of tourist flows, easing the impact on the now traditional destinations, but also giving development opportunities to the marginal areas of our country, expanding tourist products vertically and innovating the entire system in a sustainable manner.

For a model of governance of Cultural Routes: Territorial Business Systems. The case study of the Via Francigena between Monti Prenestini ed Ernici. – Cultural routes and way are gradually assuming a leading role in territorial planning policies because on the one hand they are capable of responding to the criteria of environmental, social and economic sustainability and, on the other, of favoring an expansion of the tourist offer with a strong connotation identity. The study aims to support the hypothesis that a geographical approach by aggregates can represent the indispensable premise for the development of a governance model which, through the itinerary and the way, guarantees the implementation of actions aimed at enhancing and managing extended coherent territorial areas.

Tourism in Malta archipelago: between the mass phenomenon and new sustainability hypotheses. – The territorial repercussions linked to the tourist practice can characterized as a source of stress for the destination, such as to undermine its territorial integrity. Therefore, forecast the effects are of fundamental importance to better understand the future developments of the phenomenon in order to prepare new and sustainable development strategies. Starting from the analysis of the latest tourism trends, the paper intends to focus attention on the characteristics that the phenomenon has taken in the Maltese archipelago. More specifically, will analyze the various forms that tourism has taken over the last decades, from the mass phenomenon to new hypothesis of sustainable models, and how they are sufficient or not to ensure the integrity of material and immaterial heritage on which the tourist appeal of the affected area is based.

Tourism Load Capacity as a Planning Tool in an Initiative of Rural Community Tourism. The Case of La Posada Rural La Amistad, Isla De Chira, Gulf of Nicoya, Costa Rica. – In Costa Rica, tourism is one of the first economic activities. At national level many tourism initiatives have emerged and specifically rural community tourism. As a way to strengthen the tourism offer, these initiatives must adopt several planning measures to control the effects derived from visitation, such as studies of tourism load capacity (CCT). La Posada Rural la Amistad, located on Isla de Chira in the Gulf of Nicoya, is one of those initiatives, managed by the community organization “Las Damas de Chira”. It offers accommodation, food and a protected area with a variety of attractions with tourism potential. To take advantage of this potential and in accordance with the Tourism Sustainability Standard of the Costa Rican Institute of Tourism (ICT), the organization, with the support of academics from the Tourism Studies Program of the National University, has applied different planning tools, including CCT studies, which refer to the maximum number of people who can visit a space at the same time, without physical and socioeconomic impacts. For this purpose it was necessary to take into account the basic tools to assess and control the effects derived from visitation to the protected area of the inn and strengthen tourism activity in terms of quality and sustainability. This article presents the methodology, results and analysis of the implementation of the CCT study in this protected area, applying the methodology proposed by Dr. Miguel Cifuentes in 1999.

Emotion, Religion and Local Development. The other Pompei. – The change in tourism competitive environment has transformed the sector in terms of demand and supply. Religious tourism, however, still oriented towards product, not inclined to innovation, seems to have only been marginally involved in this process. The growing awareness of the relevance of the demand and the benefits that can derive from it, in terms of sustainability, local development, protection and enhancement of historical artistic heritage, has aroused an adequate, albeit recent, attention to the phenomenon, urging new planning and cognitive requests that, however, have not yet fully translated into broad and organic research. The intent of the paper is to contribute to the enrichment of the informative panorama through the analysis of religious tourism in Pompei. The definition of the relevance of the religious component on the other tourist motivations and the description of the needs and characteristics of the demand, were the main intentions that guided the research.