ANNUAL CONGRESS 2025

Responsible tourism, transmediality and local communities. Building new narratives beyond stereotypes through shared experiences.

Not scheduled

20m

Yildiz Technical University, Istanbul

Oral Track 18 | TOURISM

Speaker

Eliana Saracino (Free University of Bozen-Bolzano)

Description

The Alpine region, as confirmed by data and statistics, is among the most frequented destinations in Italy and worldwide. As a territory at the brink of a critical threshold, it currently faces significant challenges related to tourism, particularly in the shadow of climate instability and unsustainable visitor influx. Overtourism, understood as the excessive pressure exerted by tourist flows on fragile territories, results in the rapid and irrecoverable consumption of natural and cultural resources, compromising the original value these destinations offer. Simultaneously, climate change profoundly alters the Alpine environment, reducing snow cover, destabilising ecosystems, and increasing the risk of extreme events. This threshold is not only ecological but also involves socio-economic and cultural aspects, where local communities see their territories transformed into places of consumption, often with minimal direct benefits for the area concerned and at a high cost in terms of identity and environmental loss. At the root of the problem is a tourism model based on the commodification of goods and spaces, where the territory becomes a product to be consumed rapidly, without creating new forms of value that are sustainable over time. From here, two directions can be taken: to persist with the current models, risking the definitive compromise of the fragile balances of the context, or to rethink Alpine tourism according to alternative principles, capable of combining the protection of natural and cultural heritage with sustainable development over time.

An opportunity to support a responsible approach to mountain tourism involves placing at the centre the direct experience of the territory for those who promote, inhabit, and visit it. Imagining authentic and immersive interactions, practiced together with local communities, allows for an understanding of the real values of the places, discovering not only their qualities but also the complex aspects and critical issues arising from environmental, economic, and cultural changes. Involving residents in the design, management, and promotion of tourist activities, with their unique and essential knowledge to enhance and protect the territory, enables a more equitable and widespread distribution of the benefits derived from tourism, while simultaneously reducing social conflicts. In this context, forms of storytelling across different media amplifies the understanding of space and the perception of experiences through the convergence of different means, creating a deep intertwining of places, people, stories, and the environment, guiding the conscious choices of tourist-consumers.

Co-creation practices allow communities to develop tourism offerings compatible with local cultural identity and respectful of the ecological limits of the territory, and guests to gain awareness of both the authentic aspects of the culture and society of the places visited and the real impact that tourism has on the territory going beyond stereotypical narratives. In this sense tourism can transform from an exclusively extractive machine and a factor of degradation into a catalyst for the enhancement of local heritage and the production of new resources that ensure vitality for future generations.

Can this reorientation transform the tourist from a mere consumer to a conscious custodian of natural and cultural heritage, while simultaneously fostering the economic and social regeneration of local communities? What approaches can be developed to ensure that transmedia narrative strategies make experiential pathways tools for environmental education, the enhancement of local culture, and a deeper connection between travellers and the host environment? How can these narratives raise travellers’ awareness of the real impact of tourism and encourage them to become agents of change towards sustainable models? Through the description of experiences that adopt participatory practices and transmedia storytelling, this contribution explores the potential of communication capable of overcoming stereotypes to promote responsible and authentic tourist experiences developed together with local communities.