Many small towns of Italy and Croatia have relevant cultural and natural heritage, but they are still visited by a small number of tourists. Excover project wants to change that, by increasing the tourist flows toward hidden destinations with community-led participation process. That kind of tourism development is based on sustainable valorisation of natural and cultural endogenous recourses, as well as wide participation of residents in using their under-utilized skills, goods, rooms, cars, kitchens, etc.

Sharing economy for sustainable tourism

- Setting up a local tourism supply chain is based on the tools offered by sharing economy, so unexploited private resources and skills can be valorised, which might also cover a possible lack of services on the territory, such as accommodation and local transportation – said Donatella Cozzi, project Excover coordinator for University of Udine, noting that the focus is also on the knowledge, skills and abilities of locals, which needs to be considered an attractive element of the places.

- We work within the framework of sustainable tourism development and one of its pillars is the participatory approach. When we use concept of participation, we refer on two different aspects. First, we mean taking part in a specific process, acting purposefully. Participants are involved in specific actions and are asked to decide upon specific issues. Participants means being part of a community, being part of a solidarity system. In other words, individuals who are part of community are at the same time involved in the action. We move from the idea that, to create a lively and attractive place for tourists, we need to focus on people – pointed Monica Pascoli, project Excover research assistant for University of Udine.

Involving the locals in creating the image

Pascoli said that the aim of this project is to facilitate the involvement of locals in the tourist activities, from the creation of destinations imaginary, that is how the place is presented to tourists, to the improvement of the possibilities offered by the sharing economy.

- The first step of the project is the creation of a tourist imaginary that comes out from the population itself. We want to ensure that the locals define the image of the place, we want to see the places through their eyes. That way, locals will maintain control on how their community is represented – concluded Monica Pascoli, repeating that Excover is keeping the focus on people.