Transhumance routes as tourist destinations: a concrete opportunity for inner areas or a romantic suggestion?

Abstract

The ancient practice of transhumance has generated on a large part of the Mediterranean territories a heritage of an intangible type (linked to the historical, cultural and socioanthropological value), and of a material type, consisting of the infrastructures used for centuries to move herds, characterised by intrinsic landscape and environmental qualities. In recent years, a renewed attention is emerging towards transhumance and the routes used for this purpose. In various European contexts a growing number of initiatives linked to the promotion of transhumance and to the enhancement of its routes are being implemented, both thanks to the bottom-up contribution of local associations and to top-down policies and projects. The research collects the ongoing experiences related to transhumance from the Italian, French and Spanish context, with the purpose of providing a contribution to answering the following questions: can transhumance be converted into a tourist experience with positive effects on the territory? How can the ancient transhumance routes be reconverted into infrastructures for slow tourism, enhancing the identity culture linked to it? Keywords: transhumance, slow tourism, experiential tourism, inner areas