Building Virtuous Relations between Tourism, Natural Resources and Cultural Heritage for Sustainable Development: Strategies and Instruments

Today, the concept of “sustainable development” is inevitably mentioned in plenty of papers and international and local programmes. Yet, many challenges must be faced if principles and enunciations are to become real possibilities of economic growth, which can improve the living conditions of the present and future communities by protecting and enhancing the local environmental-landscape and cultural heritage. Since tourism is among the phenomena with the highest growth rate as well as a global business in a modern society where travellers are more and more demanding, it can help, if properly managed, reconcile economic growth, sustainable development and ethic dimension and strengthen the link between production of knowledge and local development. Nevertheless, the quality of cultural and natural heritage is an essential condition for the development of this economic sector, on which many territories are relying. In the light of these considerations, this paper analyses the tourism phenomenon and the main related issues and then focuses on the case of Calabria, a region in the south of Italy, investigating problems, opportunities, strategies and prospects and advancing proposals for a complex context, where the potentials of the tourism sector have not always been effectively and durably exploited so far.