Il ruolo dei residenti nella valorizzazione del patrimonio culturale: i siti Unesco di Matera e di Alberobello a confronto

Abstract

This paper focuses on the endogenous dynamics among inhabitants who can promote the development of World Heritage Sites. It analyzes the evolution of Alberobello and Matera, two towns in the South of Italy added to the World Heritage List (WHL), respectively in 1996 (for the «Trulli») and 1993 (for the «Sassi»). Over the last twenty years, they have registered a quite different trend in tourists’ overnight stays, such as they welcome more or less the same number of tourists at the present, despite the fact that Alberobello is a small village with 11.000 inhabitant and Matera a medium sized city with 60.000 inhabitants. Based on three different surveys and interviews, realized between 2007 and 2012, the paper investigates the economic impact of the Unesco designation in both the tourist destinations. In addition it analyzes the representation of the «Trulli» and the «Sassi», over the whole Twentieth century, by using the electronic archive of the Italian newspaper «La Stampa». It emerges a completely different public discourse about the two towns and monuments. If Trulli had always been represented in a positive way, the same didn’t happen for the Sassi which have been considered for decades the symbol of backwardness and poorness. As a consequence tourism development took a completely different path in the two towns. The main finding is that listing on the WHL can contribute to the economic growth of a local area, provided, of course, the local community endeavours to make this happen and shares the conviction that its cultural heritage is a resource.