Sustainable Tourism in the Metropolitan Area

Abstract

The tourism market, as any other economic sector, demands organisation and competition. As a consequence, integrated strategies are necessary in order to improve and qualify the supply, in terms of receptivity, resource usability, additional services and marketing. The impending metropolitan area, for its intrinsic features, could play a double role in the tourism sector as both destination and hub for the whole regional territory, as it is rich in natural resources although simultaneously lacking in services. A correct valorization of these territories needs a targeted tourism focused on blending "knowledge", connected to history, and "taste", as testified by the rural tradition. The territory needs to be seen as a product to be sold, complying to the rules of territorial marketing, supporting best practice experiences as “Le reggine dei Sapori” a territorial brand created to maximize agro-food products, and "Strada dei vini e dei sapori della Locride”, that turned the territory into a system that hands down the knowledge and tradition of "Magna Graecia" and its typical products in the perspective that “ Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs ”.