MEETING EXOTIC LANDSCAPES AND DELICATE NATURE OF THE INNER SELF: TWO SIDES OF THE “VIE AU GRAND AIR” NEAR “GÉANT DE PROVENCE” (FRANCE)

Abstract

Purpose. The purpose of this paper is to identify an intelligible network of human activities that are dedicated to health tourism and sports tourism and that have been the subject of intercultural controversies generating innovations. Method. Developing an inter-disciplinary historical and mixed-method approach to a regional sustainable tourism project and describing how subjective well-being influences sport practices, body ecology and existential authenticity. Findings. A sport tourism destination allows an individual to, firstly, improve his or her state of corporeal health and, secondly, reveal a new mode of feeling that is not only about performance but also about the inner freedom and immersive vulnerability that are scarce but essential resources. Research and conclusions limitations. This case study is limited to a valley which is located on the northeast side of Mont Ventoux. Some comparisons will have to be made with other specific tourist sites that are closed to this valley. Practical implications. The authenticity of a tourist system cannot be content with artifices that are not closely shared with inhabitants. Therefore, the impact of innovations in rural areas requires taking archaeology of individual stories and collective histories into account. Stories and histories allow perceiving the outlines of sustainable tourism where growth in consumption is associated with the maintenance, protection and diversification of bio-ecosystems. Originality. Innovations which emerge in a hinterland have to be tested from the authentic perspective of people coming from elsewhere and who cross the authentic views of the people of here. Then, when a hinterland agrees to open itself to the strangeness of what is foreign to it, a fundamental process is to be encouraged: the that recognises the different forms of heritage that make up the identity of this hinterland. Type of paper. Case study.