European project SYSTOUR kicks aims to promote sustainable tourism
Shifting tourist flows towards undeveloped rural areas and emphasising the peculiarities of the local contexts involved in the project, seeking a balance in the flows of each area and connecting the areas through sustainable mobility, digital connection and authentic experiences that an area can offer. These are the objectives of the SYSTOUR project - "Systemic approach for sustainable tourism strategies in rural areas" - presented by the Department of Architecture and Design- DAD of the Politecnico and winner of the European Interreg call for proposals.
SYSTOUR officially started with the kick-off meeting on 29 March and will last 4 years. In addition to Politecnico as Lead Partner, the project involves 6 other public and private partners and over 90 stakeholders from 6 European countries (Italy, Spain, France, Hungary, Poland and Finland).
The project will start by carrying out 6 Holistic Diagnoses of the different regions involved. This method, used within the Systemic Design discipline of the Politecnico, will make it possible to map each of the regions involved geographically, economically, socially and culturally. Various multilevel qualitative-quantitative research techniques will be used to produce an overall view of the system's components, their connections and reciprocal relations that will lay the foundations for the definition of a positive impact on the quality of life of citizens, leading to a sustainable development of the territories. The involvement of territorial stakeholders and the exchange of interregional experiences will lead to the implementation of policy instruments for territorial development.
The activities are organised in three phases (Core phase, Follow-up phase and finally the Closure phase) that foresee: the exchange of 30 Good Practices of policies oriented to the promotion of sustainable tourism that will be presented during the 6 Field Visits (one for each partner country); the development of 6 Holistic Surveys oriented to understand the state of the art of the tourism sector in the selected regions and the active policies in each partner country and to identify the policy gaps; the definition of Policy Roadmaps with indications on the policies to be developed.
Communication activities include the organisation of international seminars and workshops: 6 Regional Dissemination Events (one for each partner country); 2 Interregional Dissemination Events (in Finland and in Spain); 2 Interregional workshops for knowledge tranferring (in France and in Italy, at the Politecnico); the creation of a website and social pages including Facebook, LinkedIn and a YouTube channel. The next stage of the project will be the Study visit to Hungary from 20 to 22 June 2023.
"The territorial richness of these countries must be enhanced because Europe's wealth lies in being able to promote individual peculiarities by looking at common sustainability objectives, sharing tools, good practices of political innovation and experiences among the different regions of Europe," explains Professor Silvia Barbero, SYSTOUR's scientific coordinator. "Policies for growth and employment in the tourism sector, together with territorial cooperation, represent the two elements at the basis of the project. Within this framework of political-territorial innovation, the Politecnico di Torino is at the forefront for the sustainable transition not only of production processes, but also of territorial value chains that produce considerable induced activity in the various contexts of Europe'.