Cultural Heritage Tourism as a Factor in the Production of Economic and Social Capital

One of the objectives of my research was to encourage local policy stakeholders to develop an innovative model of governance for a better management of cultural heritage, thus promoting the use of cultural activities as a tool to enhance and promote cultural heritage sites and, more generally, as a tool for a sustainable development of the territory fostering intercultural dialogue and enacting strategies to protect and promote the same cultural assets. This theme - at a time of dramatic cuts to the funding for the cultural sector at large– is highly topical, as it rises from the need to give an answer to questions, hesitations and challenges that institutions and cultural operators constantly experience while trying to enhance cultural heritage. In order to define new strategies and new methods in terms of both governance and management of cultural sites, my project has relied on a comparative analysis that has involved all the project's partners, the representatives of the institutions and of the academic and business communities, along with economic and cultural operators. Each of them was involved in “participatory” working out of a governance plan, meant to outline innovative strategies and efficient management models on the basis of the different existing systems in the project partner countries. This was also geared towards finding a possible integration across the different policies of local development.