Marginal or Marginalized Areas? Inclusion and Innovation at the Heart of Tourism Development Processes Aimed at Enhancing Local Cultural Heritage
The analysis of the literature allows us to establish a fundamental correlation between sustainable tourism, innovation and inclusion. Innovation can drive economic, social, and cultural inclusion by creating new opportunities, reducing inequalities, fostering social innovation, involving marginalized groups in decision-making, and developing accessible products/services. In other words, innovation serves as a catalyst for promoting economic and social inclusion by expanding opportunities, reducing disparities, and engaging diverse voices in the tourism development process.
One of the major gaps arising from the current literature is the lack of innovative models for development and management of CEAs, providing an effective network between public and private systems based on a common and inclusive regulation to all members of a given territory. Also, a lack of geo-referencing by means of a Geographic Information System (GIS) on a local scale with widely shared information by local actors, is also present.
To contribute to close the above gaps, the present study reflects on the criteria established for achieving the status of "integrated" cultural goods and assesses how and which assets may be geo-referenced. Ad-hoc policies are then critically discussed for the implementation of geo-referencing systems as means to strengthen actual regulations by taking into account development opportunities, as well as more inclusive parameters adapted to the environmental context, in line with the 2030 Agenda ,the Next Generation EU and the National Recovery and Resilience Plan.