Glocal Tourism and Resilient Cities: The Case of Matera “European Capital of Culture 2019”

This research paper presents the key elements of the strategic project “European Capital of Culture 2019” initiated by the city of Matera in 2014. Through the “big event”, defined by the combination “diluted time/diffuse space”, the “Città dei Sassi”, UNESCO World Heritage since 1993, is innovating...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Sustainability 2019-08, Vol.11 (15), p.4118
Main Authors: Ivona, Antonietta, Rinella, Antonella, Rinella, Francesca
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Cities
Contact potentials
Cultural heritage
Culture
Ecotourism
Empowerment
Municipalities
Regional planning
Resilience
Scientific papers
Spectators
Sustainability
Tourism
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Summary:This research paper presents the key elements of the strategic project “European Capital of Culture 2019” initiated by the city of Matera in 2014. Through the “big event”, defined by the combination “diluted time/diffuse space”, the “Città dei Sassi”, UNESCO World Heritage since 1993, is innovating the symbolic, material, and organizational levels of all the Basilicata municipalities whose tourist resources were almost unknown both at national and international levels, thus showing high resiliency, i.e., flexibility, inclusiveness, integration, and initiative. Through a self-centered and sustainable model of tourist accommodation that minimizes the infrastructure fixed capital investment aiming, at the same time, to increase collective empowerment processes, it is planned to accommodate about 700,000 “temporary citizens” who, by adopting an active and participative approach, wish to live a unique and unrepeatable identity experience in the Lucanian community instead of being mere spectators. Special attention is paid to “virtual” communication by using the world wide web not only as a showcase to promote the bottom-up identification and enhancement process of the heritage, but also as a tool to manage contacts with potential visitors in order to avoid any adverse impact of the event on the environmental and cultural components of the city and of the regional planning.
ISSN:2071-1050
2071-1050
DOI:10.3390/su11154118