SUSTAINABLE TOURISM AND VALUE CO-CRATION: CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES FOR RURAL AREAS

The co-creation value in tourist destinations is today an hot topic in the destination management research field. This paper investigates at first the role of university as facilitator between territorial actors in the tourist development process, analysing the relation with the local stakeholders; then, traditional food events and agribusiness projects based on a cultural approach, following also the sharing economy principles with the support of ICT, are analysed in order to understand their role in a tourism development perspective. The present work adopts a qualitative approach, using both the case study and the ethnography methods. Dialogues, interactions, official documents, field notes and semi-structured interviews with key subjects were then analyzed. The research highlights how a cultural paradigm change, both in terms of collaboration between stakeholder and in terms of resource management, is needed to foster local innovation and development. Subsequent quantitative research could be recommended to generalize the evidences emerging from the present work and measuring the current extention and weight of the discussed topics. This paper contributes to highlight the value of a cultural and co-creative approach in the destination management for a sustainable tourist development.