Cycling Tourism and Revitalization in the Sicilian Hinterland: A Case Study in the Taormina–Etna District

Gianni Petino (), Giuseppe Reina and Donatella Privitera
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Giuseppe Reina: Department of Political and Social Sciences, University of Catania, 95131 Catania, Italy

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 13, issue 18, 1-19

Abstract: This study aims to present a strategy for the revitalization of the Sicilian “internal areas”, recognizing a directional tool, together with the integration of self-centered actions of slow tourism. The design was specifically located in the Taormina–Etna tourist district (an area of north-eastern Sicily that includes 60 municipalities) which, in rethinking the post-pandemic restart, aims at the development of a mobile system of cycling tourism able to interconnect cultural peculiarities, environmental characteristics, and landscape values. This paper also examines key features and interpretations, and develops a strategy based on a slow travel framework as an alternative means of achieving success in the Sicilian hinterland. Starting from the current financial and environmental crisis, therefore, the paper finds explanations and solutions, in which we try to conceive of the economy and ecology as systems that not only open to one another, but mutually determine one another in defining new, self-sustaining local development processes. In order to build a competitive alternative to help less favorable regions, it is necessary to move within the scope of investments by a public system capable of planning resilient strategies based on sustainable principles.

Keywords: thematic itineraries; cycle tourism; experiential tourism; strategic planning (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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