1248 | 929 | Defining natural heritage landscape ‘from below’. A case study from the Italian Dolomites

Climate change, sudden natural disasters and global epidemic are considered by scholars (Prideaux, 2003) the adversities that require more attention from a tourism perspective, mostly in mountain destinations that are highly dependent on natural heritage landscapes (Richins & Hull, 2016). Recent reflections have been stressing the primary role of local communities in tourism responses to crises (Higgins-Desbiolles & Bigby, 2022; Imperiale, 2021)._x000D_
Drawn from these considerations, the study addresses the landscape-tourism nexus (Meneghello, 2021; Terkenli, 2004) as a conceptual filter to understand emerging meanings assigned to a specific Dolomites landscape by individuals and communities in a period of successive emergencies. _x000D_
The analysis zooms in on the specific area of the Biois Valley, a tourist destination in the Eastern Italian Alps , and on the specific time frame between October 2018 when the storm Vaia damaged part of the Valley’s forests and the 2021, in the middle of the Italian third wave pandemic. A series of semi-structured, in-field interviews allows to collect and compare the viewpoints of residents, operators and visitors concerning the changing role of natural heritage landscape in their perceptions and practices. _x000D_
The study highlights the significance of vernacular activities of landscape care in the (re)definition of natural heritage by people who never intervene in official decisions about landscape and tourism (Harvey & Waterton, 2015). In the framework of regenerative systems, which many tourism scholars advocate for the post-crisis relaunch (Cheer et al, 2021), these resilient practices show positive processes of co-construction and reconstruction of landscape meaning “from below” (Robertson, 2016) as a positive counter-answer to the dominant, often stereotyped and sensationalist, landscape narratives officially defined and promoted only for tourism purposes.

Sabrina Meneghello
University of Padua – Italy

ID Abstract: 929