Ioannis Kaplanis (p), Ioannis Radin

Hugo Pinto

The international Epidaurus Festival has been one of the most prominent festivals in Greece and takes place at two ancient Greek theatres, in the Argolis region of Greece. Besides attracting visitors to the archaeological sites of the ancient theatres, the Epidaurus Municipality becomes an important cultural and tourist destination during the festival period. Running over the summer months each year, the Festival hosts a diverse range of cultural events, including theatre, music and performance, that create a vibrant social and cultural environment but also directly support the local economy.
The Festival that attracts more than 80,000 visitors each year has helped to put the region of Argolis on the map as an international cultural destination. The local economy relies on the Festival and hotels, restaurants and other tourist facilities have developed to service the festival goers. Furthermore, the Festival has boosted the employment opportunities for local people, both in the cultural sector and in related industries such as hospitality and tourism.
Our study explores the role of the Epidaurus Festival in regional development, drawing on empirical evidence. We use data from the Hellenic Festival S.A., the company that runs the Athens Epidaurus Festival, and employs almost 1,000 workers during the summer season to work in the Epidaurus Municipality. Furthermore, we conduct customer surveys that provide valuable quantitative information on the travel and consumer habits of the festival visitors. Interviews with the Festival Administration, the Local Authority and local agents involved in the tourist industry will enrich the analysis.
The paper aims to study the socio-economic impact of the Festival, by examining its contribution to tourism, infrastructure development, job creation and regional economic growth.

Claudia G. Green (p)

Ioannis Kaplanis

Prior to the COVID 19 pandemic, Angkor Temples were visited by 2 million tourists (Asia News Network, 2017). Again in 2022 (post COVID), Angkor welcomed 2 million international tourists. It is anticipated that 7 million international tourists will visit annually by 2026 or 2027. In addition, the Cambodia Ministry of Tourism noted the presence of 13.9 million domestic travelers in the country in 2022 (Khmer Times, 2023). In the transition from pre COVID (overtourism) to COVID (no tourism) to post COVID (overtourism), how can tourism be re-imaged instead returning to business usual?
Angkor Wat, located outside of Siem Reap, Cambodia, is the largest archeological UNESCO site in the world. It was named in the Top 25 World Destinations in 2015 and 2016 by Trip Advisor (Trip Advisor, 2015/2016), but that recognition was received as a mixed blessing among the stakeholders including residents living on the Angkor archeological site, an area of 400 square kilometers. As a “living site”, Angkor is the home to over 300 villages of local residents living and farming on a day-to-day basis. The numbers of locals living within the borders of Angkor continues to increase. In many cases, the families of local residents have lived there for centuries.
The balancing of cultural heritage and tourism presents challenges such as how:
•to involve the community stakeholders in decision making while realizing that having the “right to participate” does not necessarily mean the “capacity to participate”;
•to involve the local community in tourism activities;
•to gain stakeholder collaboration to establish clear channels of communication and encourage parties involved to accept the responsibility for starting the dialogue;
•to generate income for conservation and understand that the user must pay to generate that revenue (Peters, 1999).
A complication exists when the stakeholders involved represent the local community when the definition of “local community” is not clear. Aas, Ladkin & Fletcher (2005) defined the concepts of stakeholder collaboration and involvement in process in developing countries and the role of cultural heritage in increasing tourism. In this case study Angkor temples, we will examine the way that stakeholders can learn and be involved in the use of various quality improvement tools (flow charts, checklist, Fishbone diagram, etc) to improve the visitor experience while also reducing the negative impacts of overtourism post COVID

Laura Cavalli (p), Veronica Polin, Matteo Spinazzola

Claudia G Green

The sustainable use and management of mountain resources is crucial for the development of mountain areas and their surrounding regions, especially since these areas provide essential environmental services, including water, biomass, grazing land, and biodiversity. In Italy, mountains cover 35% of the land and are home to 12% of the population. Despite their importance, they have faced marginalization from economic and social development, leading to declining populations and infrastructure. To address these challenges, bottom-up initiatives have emerged as a complementary approach to top-down policies in promoting sustainable mountain development and achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. To investigate this growing phenomenon, the present study adopts a quantitative approach to examine the characteristics of bottom-up, sustainability-oriented initiatives in Italian mountain areas by analyzing survey responses of 196 initiatives located in five different regions in Italy. It found that relevant initiatives are emerging in both marginal and semi-marginal areas in the North, Center, and South of the country. A majority of them can be categorized as businesses or associations, mostly concentrated in agriculture, artisanal production, tourism, and hospitality. As expected, they are relatively young and innovative, and highly focused on improving the sustainable use of local resources and the quality of life in their territories. These preliminary findings provide valuable insights into the key features of bottom-up sustainability-oriented initiatives in Italian mountain areas, serving as a basis for further research.

Giusy Sica (p)

Laura Cavalli

This contribution presents an example of a project for the cultural, economic, and social regeneration of the Ostuni village in Salento, Italy.
First, an introduction will set the theoretical framework and highlight the importance of community-based projects in achieving social, cultural, as well as territorial regeneration. In fact, the current EU policy for rural areas and the national Italian policy related to the “Piano Nazionale di Ripresa e Resilienza'' both emphasize the importance of revitalizing the small and heritage villages. These policies highlight the need to undertake regeneration actions which are community-based and bottom-up, in the sense that they are directly created by the community that populates the small villages and have a strong social connotation.
Then, it will be shown that Creative and culture industries (CCIs) are the best organizations to reach these goals and on the current legislative Italian limitations on this topic. I will provide few examples of projects led by CCIs and aimed at promoting cultural and social innovations in rural and urban areas in the Southern of Italy. I will highlight their main objectives and methods, as well as presenting the benefits that they allowed to reach in terms of improvement of the quality of life of the communities involved and of developing of a territorial identity.
Finally, I will present a practical example that I am carrying on as member of the Officina Keller CCI: a Rural & Creative Lab to be built in Ostuni, in Southern Italy.
Officina Keller aims at enhancing and developping the economy in inner areas, as well as to promote innovation and culture also from a sustainable perspective. Among the main goals of this model, one of the most relevant one is to support, regenerate and prevent adolescent social and educational dispersion through the construction, for example, of an art and architecture forest that connects what are the vocations of the territory with art and technology. The idea behind the project, which is intended as a pilot case for one of the first “rural laboratories” in Puglia, is that it can demonstrate the applicability and efficiency of CCIs as developers of labs model able to enhance the identity of the community in rural areas. The Officina Keller’s model can thus be read as the first step of a larger project that aims to redevelop the urban area in the name of modernity, while respecting its tradition and natural peculiarities.

Hugo Pinto (p)

Giusy Sica

The smart region concept is increasingly being applied as a policy tool to different types of territories, from metropolitan areas to multiple cities, towns and even rural areas, to accelerate digital transformation. It refers to a geographic area that uses technology and data-driven approaches to improve quality of life, drive economic growth, create jobs and enhance sustainability. A smart region integrates technology, data analytics and engagement to create a more liveable and prosperous context for its citizens. The barriers to the consolidation of a smart region are many and often based in different types of market and systemic failures. In this way, good governance of a smart region is one of the key aspects of its success. It involves the use of effective and responsible leadership, policies and practices that ensure the region is developed in a sustainable, equitable and inclusive manner. The governance of the smart region is complex, it is related to several wicked problems, needs to be people-centred, and involves a challenging triad of economy-society-environment transformation, the twin transitions, digital and ecological.
Inspired by complexity and good governance frameworks and the actual implementation of the Smart Region Algarve project, the southern region of Portugal that has become internationally known as a sun and sand tourism destination, this communication explores the implementation of smart region frameworks in non-metropolitan areas, as understood by the InSitu project. Good governance in non-metropolitan areas implies a clear functioning and allocation of roles, including leadership; the effective definition of common objectives; the definition and implementation of a roadmap of strategic actions; the use of models and tools to stimulate the participation and co-decision process; and the acceptance of the heterogeneity of actors and their ambitions as part of the process. Focusing on the transformation of the region by reaffirming the principles of a smart region also requires new (or further developed) capabilities in the public sector which are more reflexive (ability to interpret and learn from one's own policy mistakes), collaborative (ability to engage and mobilize actors from other institutional spheres) and analytical (especially in relation to open government data). The leadership dimension is particularly important; as transformative processes can often be hijacked by dominant actors in the peripheral regions who subvert regional goals to their own individual agendas. The findings of this communication can help other regions, particularly non-metropolitan or tourism-dependent regions, to engage in effective smart region dynamics.