Addressing Over and Under Tourism Along Cultural Routes. Lessons Learned from the H2020 Project rurAllure

This paper aims to show how the role of stakeholder networks is crucial in contributing to one of the main objectives of EU regions: a better balance of tourism flows distribution to cope with both over and under-tourism side effects. By presenting the first results of an H2020 Coordination and Support action involving six pilgrimage ways and sixteen partners in six European countries, we will underline how sustainable development of tourism in rural areas depends on the involvement and cooperation of many organisations at different geographical scales. Thanks to the lessons learned in a two-and-a-half-year-long set of pilot actions developed in the municipality of Argenta along the Via Romea Germanica (Italy), we will also explain how strong stakeholder engagement is needed in creating tourism imaginary using podcasts. In the paper, we use this experience to analyse the critical issues and strengths of a participatory strategy to redesign tourist territories. rurAllure has been funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation programme under Grant Agreement n. 101004887.