Italian « Borghi » : tourist valorization of environmental and cultural heritage

The binomial tourism-cultural heritage is crucial to create a virtuous process of valorization of different territories, with particular regard to rural ones. The Strategic Tourism Development Plan 2017-2022, in Italy, aims, for the first time, at the adoption of an open and participatory method allowing institutions and operators to contribute to vision, strategic choices and interventions to relaunch and innovate the tourism sector, all through direct meetings, working tables, IT platforms and social networks. The mentioned method has a strong territorial dimension, whose purpose is the recognition of the differentiation and of the territorial valorization of the offer as a fundamental lever of growth and development of the overall competitiveness of the Italian tourism sector, thus broadening the national tourist offer and fostering its sustainability. In particular, with respect to the dynamics underway, the Plan aims at the full use of the strong competitive advantage deriving from the plurality and variety of cultural, natural, anthropological heritage, highlighted through local skills, knowledge, talents and traditions. Within the mentioned Plan, the enhancement of the lesserknown cultural destinations is considered as highly strategic, with regard to the presence of small towns and cities, so called "Borghi", whose historical and cultural heritage is of extremely great value. According to this new vision, the Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities MIBACT dedicated the year 2017 to "Borghi" with the aim of enhancing forms of sustainable tourism, together with material and immaterial local heritage. A fundamental role is played by the so called "Borghi Card" drawn up by the Coordination Committee of Italian Borghi; this document illustrates, in accordance with the law "Salva Borghi" (6 October 2017, No. 158), a set of concrete actions, ranging from infrastructural interventions, to digital strategies and accessibility, to business policies, aimed at relaunching sustainable tourism