Placemaking and Networking of Heritage for Sustainable Tourism

Abstract

The heritage as emotional investment of the citizens is important resource for the communities affirming their local identity and establishing the great potential for development of tourism. The richness in the cultural heritage and historic layers are one of the main characteristics of European cities and towns. The paper will focus on how small and medium sized towns in Europe can enhance heritage with the increase a sustainable tourism that is competitive by using the different tools (digital, collaborative, design) in networking of the heritage sites and placemaking. The small and medium towns are in the focus of the research because they are shrinking during the last few decades that is caused by the depopulation and socio-economic factors. Developing of small and medium cities through their heritage promotions, enhance tourism as a milestone for their urban development and promotion. Sustainable development of tourism could be achieved by strengthening the ties between different actors in the process of placemaking, enhancing the relations and interactions between tourism, cultural heritage and local inhabitants using digital tools. One of the goals is to try to depict relation between physical heritage networks and linked digital tools. Cultural assets are of great importance for revitalize small cities and endargered towns, but these are not enough if investments are missing. It is necessary to attract them for living again, rebuilding the lost commercial activities and public services. Heritage and tourism are closely connected, from one hand heritage is one of the major stimuly for cultural tourism and on the other hand heritage sites can improve their preservation by tourism. But the relationship between the two can be conflictual due to a possible overuse and consequent deterioration of heritage sites due to different needs and strategies between the two fields. A new placemaking strategy must be developed that considers how tuorism can influence (positive or negative) the suistanaibility of cultural heritage overview as well as heritage role in the local identity. By critical analysies of literature and selected cases from different countries in Europe, we hope to present proposals for strenghtening the heritage potentials for sustainable tourism in small and medium sized towns, focusing on the junction of scientific theories and practical experiences. The paper highlights the findings and lessons learned from selected cases from Portugal, Italy, Croatia, Greece, Romania and Serbia. Final intentions of the paper are to present the variety of possible ways to use networking of heritage site and stakeholders as a medium for placemaking in favour of both local population and prospective tourists.