Armando Montanari

European tourism : regions, spaces and restructuring

PART 1 - REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND POPULATION SYSTEMS: The Mediterranean Region: Europes Summer Leisure Space The British Isles: Tourism and Regional Development PART 2 - SPATIAL REORGANISATION OF TOURISM: Rural Tourism: The Creation of New Rural Spaces PART 3 - TRANSNATIONALISATION: Tourism, Labour and International Migration PART 4 - NEW TOURISM PRODUCTS AND SOCIAL CHANGE: Tourism and the Environment Tourism Change in Central and Eastern Europe CONCLUSIONS: The Impact of Tourism on the Restructuring of European Space.

Culinary Tourism as a Tool for Regional Re-equilibrium

This paper is the result of research undertaken into the relationship between quality agriculture and wine-and-food tourism on the Apennines of central and southern Italy. Food is not merely a source of nourishment: depending on production methods, food can also become a cultural reference point, an element of regional development and a tourist resource. This occurs with “local” food, representing a model of production and consumption which suggests a strong link with the region in which the food is produced. In the marginal mountainous regions of central Italy, there is an important productive segment involving motivated and innovative entrepreneurs, regardless of the public sector that is not always up to the situation. Tourism linked to quality agriculture has not only proved to be an economic lever but a form of protection of a territory that is fragile and at risk; it is a sort of contemporary sustainable development. The process is at the initial phases and in need of public support according to a bottom-up approach.

Sustainability and self‐regulation: Critical perspectives

Abstract This paper considers the limits of self‐regulation in the pursuit of sustainable tourism. There is evidence of considerable good practice brought about by self‐regulation in many parts of Europe, and this is illustrated by the example of the Alps. However, even a consideration of the traditional division between individual and social costs indicates the limitations to self‐regulation. The main emphasis of the paper is on exploring how regulation theory can deepen our appreciation of the constraints on self‐regulation.

Cross-national co-operation and human mobility: an introduction

This special issue contains four chapters that are part of the results produced within the IGU Commission on Global Change and Human Mobility by a wide network of researchers from a hundred-odd countries on every continent. International collaboration in the social sciences is part of a tradition that began 50 years ago on the initiative of UNESCO. Cross-national co-operation projects are a basic prerequisite for the global spread of knowledge and innovation. Human mobility – an element of synergy and overlap between migration and tourism – is a key research theme for social scientists worldwide. People flows are both the cause and consequence of the flow of capital, goods, and culture. The complexity of the phenomenon and the lack of data to adequately illustrate it require the ‘innovative’ use of traditional statistical indicators.

Geography of taste and local development in Abruzzo (Italy): project to establish a training and research centre for the promotion of enogastronomic culture and tourism

Food is not merely a source of nourishment but also one of survival for human beings. Depending on production methods, food can also become a cultural reference point, an element of regional development and a tourist resource. This occurs with “local” food, representing a model of production and consumption that suggests a strong link with the region in which the food is produced. Over the last few years, the field of geographical studies has seen the rise of a specialised branch – the geography of taste – concerned with the study of links between the production of food, seen as a phenomenon of organisation of production, and the territory of reference. The production of food with these qualitative characteristics engages all five senses, assumes cultural significance and thus represents an element of emotional richness – the “gaze” – capable of being transformed into the tourist attraction defined in this paper as the “taste of geography”. These phenomena have been studied in a region of Italy – Abruzzo – in order to obtain the necessary data to plan a training and research centre for the promotion of enogastronomic culture and tourism.

Global Changes, Coastal Areas and Conflicts: experiences from Italy

Three cases of environmental conflicts occurring in Italian coastal areas are analysed in the present chapter: Civitavecchia, Costa Teatina National Park and Ostia. Civitavecchia and Ostia are included in the Rome Metropolitan Area, while the Costa Teatina National Park is in the Chieti-Pescara urban area. In Civitavecchia the major conflict is environmental: about air quality and pollution due to the presence of two power stations close to the city centre and the mooring of cruise ships. The second conflict is about the use and management of water and the processing of waste water and drainage systems in Ostia, besides coastal erosion. The third conflict is linked to the spatial definition of the boundaries of the Costa Teatina National Park. The current conflict concerns the definition of the spatial boundaries of the park even if bias against the existence of the Park itself does exist. All the three conflicts concern the contrast between economic development and environmental protection. The first and the second also include competition for the use of resources at a time characterized by extensive human mobility. The third case study specifically concerns conflicts occurring over the protection of the natural environment and biodiversity. It will be shown that those conflicts are chronic, critical for the development of the concerned areas, and their solutions are urgently needed.

Human mobility. An issue of multidisciplinary research

The chapter retraces the stages which led to the theorisation and the affirmation of the concept of human mobility in social sciences. Moving from comparative analyses concerning urban development in the 1960s and 1970s of the twentieth century, the chapter comes to the latest theories on immaterial and virtual mobilities. Human mobility is the core of the discussion; in the background are the main events that have revolutionised the global world, in its political, economic, technological aspects.

Consequences of Economic Deconcentration in Italy and Rome: Unplanned Processes in a Highly Regulated Country

This paper analyses the relationship between deconcentration processes, planning policies, and governance in the metropolitan area of Rome, Italy, from 1991 to 2001. It points out that Rome does not have an explicit policy either in favor of or against deconcentration and that the public authorities are not in fact aware of the problem. Deconcentration is mainly driven by market forces and business location decisions. These decisions are strongly influenced by material factors such as accessibility, land availability, and real estate prices, as well as immaterial factors such as the natural, cultural, and social environment. Public players can take action to influence these factors. Even though Italy has a very strictly regulated planning system, there has traditionally been a high degree of freedom in actual behaviors.

The Italian way to deconcentration. Rome: The appeal of the historic centre. Chieti-Pescara: The strength of the periphery

In this paper we deal with the topic of deconcentration in two Italian metropolitan areas: Rome, the capital city; and Chieti-Pescara, a medium-sized urban area. The paper reveals the particular patterns of deconcentration in those areas, exemplifying the Italian approach to deconcentration. These metropolitan areas show that deconcentration is an undesired phenomenon; enterprises choose peripheral areas for their lower costs on the real-estate market and for better accessibility; central locations are still favoured by the ICT sector and the front office functions in the tertiary sector; and deconcentration is showing an upward trend.

Developing Tourism in the Lunigiana

The rapid evolution of hypermedia technology together with the increasingly wide use of the Internet can be effectively exploited to publicise the great artistic and historic heritage of Italy and its regions. Aiming to increase tourism, many public administrations have been looking with great interest to projects enhancing exposure of their territories and permitting virtual visits to museums, towns, archaeological sites and other sights.