HERITY Wizard's Days: "Hypertrophic Tourism"

The Centro Internazionale di Studi sull'Economia Turistica (CISET) of the Ca' Foscari University in Venice and HERITY International have just signed a cooperation agreement about joint activities on Quality Management of Cultural Heritage and Tourism, in the framework of the Universities of HERITY programme.

Next activity will be the International Meeting on "Hypertrophic Tourism", which will be the first appointment of the new "HERITY Wizard's days".

After 10 years of International Colloquia on Cultural Heritage Management conducted by DRI and 10 years of HERITY Conferences on Value, Conservation, Communication and Services related to  cultural heritage, for a total of 20 years, it was time to launch a new initiative, aimed to share methodologies and results obtained by a number of stakeholders and actors of the managing processes in these fields.

The psychologist Andrea Grosso reminds that the term Wizard in the English language of the XVth century had the meaning of 'philosopher', 'wise man'. Going further back in time, the Indo-European root 'Wid' means 'to know'. Several derived terms can be referred to this, such as the Sanskrit 'Veda' or the English 'Vision', 'Witness', 'Wisdom'.

These three words resume the approach that HERITY puts at the basis of the "HERITY Wizard's days".

The next HERITY Wizard's day will be on "Hypertrophic Tourism". Managing tourism at cultural sites and destinations is a challenge which should consider that we are dealing with non-renewable resources; that we should pursue a balance between use and conservation; that this point of equilibrium is different from place to place, and along the time.

One reason more to organize the meeting in Venice, which is a remarkable example, recently also considered at the UNESCO 40th WHC meeting in July 2016: it was underlined by Francesco Bandarin that Venice last year received 25,000,000 visitors more or less, having a little bit more than 50,000 residents.

The meeting will be held in the heart of Venice, at the Ca' Dolfin venue on November, 11th 2016.