Editorial - Beyond the Great Beauty: Rescaling Heritage and Tourism

This Special Issue provides the readers of Alma Tourism with a compelling account of the workshop “Beyond the Great Beauty, Rescaling Heritage and Tourism”, organised by the Center for Advanced Studies in Tourism (CAST) of the University of Bologna from 10 to 12 February 2016 (see also Mariotti, 2016). The workshop was hosted as the major annual event of the former RSA’s (Regional Studies Association) research network on Tourism and Regional Development, which was staged every year in a prestigious international tourism research centre. Capitalising on the germane debate that unfolded across the three days of work, this Special Issue is an occasion for discussing the nexus between cultural heritage and tourism in its multiple and complex manifestations. Indeed, this is a very ambitious goal, especially within a technical-­‐ economic tradition that usually frames the relationship between cultural heritage and tourism as linear and unidirectional. Without a doubt, cultural heritage is frequently seen by policy makers as a lever for boosting tourist arrivals and economic revenues. In this view, cultural heritage is frequently assigned a “redeeming role” (Rabbiosi & Giovanardi, 2017, p. 250) by destination managers and urban policy makers, who tend to welcome quick-­‐fix cultural heritage-­‐led regeneration strategies. Cultural tourism is increasingly touted as inherently and ontologically “good”, with heritage becoming the favourite “magic wand” to foster local economic development and social cohesion in developing countries, decayed post-­‐industrial inner cities or stagnating tourist resorts alike. The risk is, however, that cultural heritage becomes another path towards exclusionary forms of urban growth. [Taken from Introduction]