Caterina Patrizia Di Franco

An exploratory study of sustainable rural tourism in Sicily

Recently, a significant interest was noticed around rural tourism, and particularly agritourism, which represents the main specific application. Rural tourism is a sustainable tourism, since the valorisation and conservation of environmental and territorial resources where economic activity is carried out are its main features. From the official statistical data, it appears clear that this activity, widely spread in Italy, may provide a significant financial support both to agricultural firms and to the whole sector of tourism, and thus allows redistributing touristic flows from coastal towards inland areas. The main aims of the paper are both to analyse the agritourist supply in Sicily compared to land resources, and to identify the environmental and social factors which are likely to affect entrepreneurial success. Information gathered from regional statistical reports was supplemented by primary data, collected through interviews to a representative sample of agritourist entrepreneurs working in different rural areas of Sicily.

Development and management of winemaking sustainability: an explorative survey in Sicily

Sustainability is reshaping the global wine industry. This paper provides a fact-finding contribution to the knowledge on how the Sicilian winegrowing sector is facing the challenge of the new scenario of sustainable productions. To reach this goal we carried out an explorative analysis of those Sicilian wineries involved in 2 important sustainability programs in the Italian wine sector, Magis and SOStain, aimed at improve the implementation of sustainable viticulture and wine production. The results of our research concerning 5 wineries in Sicily reveal that adopting sustainable productive methods has lead in general to good technical and financial results by improving their business efficiencies and management systems, with positive socio-economic implications at a local level.

Sustainability initiatives and experiences in the Sicilian wine industry

The Italian wine sector shows an increasing interest towards sustainability issues. As a result, a wide number of programs and initiatives concerning environmental, social and economic sustainability has been developed in recent years. The aim of this manuscript is to describe the adaptation of the Sicilian wine sector to the new scenario of sustainable productions. To this purpose a direct survey of 5 Sicilian wineries involved in two different sustainability programs, SOStain and Magis, was carried out. The findings of the study reveal that the sustainability path undertaken by the wineries analyzed has led to management awareness that company activities can ensure social and human benefits, as well as fulfill environmental and economic objectives in the long term.