How Authenticity and Tradition Shift into Sustainability and Innovation: Evidence from Italian Agritourism

Pamela Palmi and Greta Enrica Lezzi
Additional contact information
Pamela Palmi: Department of Economics and Management, University of Salento, Ecotekne, Prov.le Lecce-Monteroni, 73100 Lecce, Italy
Greta Enrica Lezzi: Department of Lecce, Regional Agency for the Prevention and Protection of the Environment, Via Miglietta 2, 73100 Lecce, Italy

IJERPH, 2020, vol. 17, issue 15, 1-23

Abstract: This study investigates the topic of innovation strategies based on tradition in the wake of sustainability, in the agritourism sector, as derived from the phenomenon of multifunctionality in agriculture. The results reveal that the tangible and intangible resources that originate from tradition are drivers for innovation. The research highlights how tradition, as grounded on diverse foundations, is able to generate novel products and services stemming from an innovative arrangement of past events, particularly the identity of a place, which brings out its authenticity and makes it even more attractive. In this paper, we delve into the multifaceted outcomes that tangible and intangible traditions have on the innovation and distinctive standing of this rising accommodation offer with regard to post-productivism agriculture, and how this is accomplished while also looking for sustainability. The sourced dataset is based on a qualitative investigation of 10 cases in the Salento area of Puglia, a region of southern Italy. Tradition-grounded strategies proved to have several viable routes leading to innovation and bear positive impacts on the territory and the creation of value, yielding significant results both for scholars and practitioners.

Keywords: innovation; tradition; source of tradition; authenticity; sustainability; agritourism (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (8)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/15/5389/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/15/5389/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:17:y:2020:i:15:p:5389-:d:390314

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().