Publication Date:
2011-01-01
Description:
An increasing number of the people responsible for promoting tourism understand the necessity of landscape conservation and sustainable development. Sustainability and the maintenance of regional identity depend on the kind of tourism that takes account of the landscape and stops short of a blind modification of it, for instance through the installation of inappropriate large-scale tourist infrastructure. Since the 1970s South Tyrol, Italy’s most northern province (Autonome Provinz Bozen/Südtirol; Provincia Autonoma di Bolzano/Alto Adige), has engaged in tourism of outstanding quality, centreed on the existing landscape potential. Until today this has been the basis for successful tourism development. In the meantime however, there have been calls in South Tyrol for a quantitative expansion, founded on the implementation of an artificial touristic infrastructure and products. As is the case in many other alpine regions, this could be detrimental to the quality of the landscape. Supported by tourism research and based on the authors’ own long-standing experience, this article analyzes the development and trends of tourism in South Tyrol from a geographical perspective and takes a critical look at the various planning prospects and the problems which might evolve for the landscape and for tourism marketing.
Electronic ISSN:
2391-5447
Topics:
Geosciences
