How to Manage the Paradox? Festival and Heritage as Sites of Responsible Encounter with Otherness

This article focuses on one paradox rarely discussed in connection with the expanding prominence of festivals and heritage in cultural life, beyond acknowledging its inevitability: the way in which their successful promotion appears to undermine the very qualities that characterize them. Both festivals and heritage are instrumentalized as a means of promoting tourism, but their appeal is based on notions of authenticity and uniqueness that clash with their success. Rather than dismissing festivalization and heritagization as mere processes of linear standardization and “touristification”, we explore the possibilities of a more nuanced appreciation, focusing on encounters with various forms of alterity in the tourist experience and the reflexivity they enable. We present some empirical evidence of how these issues play out through the case study of “IT.A.CÀ Migrants and Travellers” festival, contributing to the debate on defining sustainable and responsible tourism.