This Regional Studies Association Research Network is a renewal of the initial Research Network on Tourism, Regional Development and Public Policy
It is our great pleasure to announce the on-line publication of Alma Tourism vol. 8, n. 7, 2017, Special Issue: Beyond the Great Beauty: Rescaling Heritage and Tourism: https://almatourism.unibo.it/issue/view/614
The Special Issue represents one of the outcomes of the former Regional Studies research network on Tourism and Regional development international workshop held at the Center for Advanced Studies in Tourism, 10-12 February 2016.
In recent decades tourism has occupied an increasing schizophrenic position in regional development: often sidelined by manufacturing or knowledge-oriented activities, occasionally seen as the great hope for peripheral regions, and more recently as a potential driver of a new experience economy in metropolitan areas, or even as a kind of traditional service clusters.
Descriptive case studies seem to dominate the not-too-large literature on tourism and regional development, and the working group will attempt to further a more theoretically informed perspective, drawing on the interdisciplinary traditions of the RSA and the diverse interests of its members. Among the questions to be taken into account are for instance those related to the conditions of successful and sustainable contribution of tourism in a given region. The problem of adequacy of tourism development as a potential policy instrument will be analysed with regard to the specificity of regions and their development paths. The question of potential conflicts surrounding tourism as a multidimensional and multilocal phenomenon shall be examined to the extent possible.
An examination of tourism diversity from the perspective of regional development will hopefully help to identify current challenges and opportunities in a more systematic manner, and hence provide the basis for a more well-informed integration of tourism in regional development strategies and move beyond political short-termism and buzzword fascination.