Sustainable Development Paths through Creative Interactions between Cultural Heritage and Tourism

The proposal, inspired by ongoing research activities, focuses on the relationship between cultural heritage and sustainable tourism as a key factor for social and economic development able to strengthen local tradition, protect the environment and enhance local resources, if developed with creative and innovative approaches. As a matter of fact, the passive conservation of single pieces of territory is not enough, «tradition is not the worship of ashes, but the preservation (and transmission) of fire». It is necessary to trigger a more complex process of revitalization able to reconstruct relations, to generate new territorial forms, to start cycles of production of resources, to implement economic chains which can involve wide participation. Within this approach, urban and regional planning is a vital tool to prefigure new sustainable development scenarios to be gradually implemented in successive stages through the most suitable means and procedures but always within a unitary complex mosaic.