STUDY PROGRAMME IN EURPOEAN
SPATIAL PLANNING
2.3.5 CULTURAL HERITAGE:
CULTURE IN ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT STRATEGIES
CASE STUDY:
THE JUBILEE 2000 ITINERARIES
‘PERCORSI GIUBILARI’
OCTOBER 1999
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ESPESP URBAN-RURAL PARTNERSHIP
ITALIAN CASE STUDY: “THE JUBILEE 2000I ITINERARIES ‘PERCORSI GIUBILARI”
1. THE RELEVANCE OF THE SELECTED CASE STUDY FOR RURAL-URBAN PARTNERSHIP
The 2000 Jubilee will activate intense flows of visitors: it is calculated that
something like 20 million people, in the year 2000 alone, will arrive in Rome. It will be
a relevant event even on the tourist level. It is for this reasons that the event is presented
as an ideal occasion to modernise the Italian mobility and accommodation system,
above-all in the mid-range sector, and to render the arts both more preserved and
valued, but also more available to people.
The Italian government supports projects oriented in this view (Decreto Min.
Lavori Pubblici, 17 Settembre 1997). The financial resources allocated outside Rome
and Lazio are divided in two main categories of geographical areas: the main religious
and artistic Head Cities like Florence, Venice and Bari, from one side, and small rural
towns, mostly located in peripheral areas. As fig. 1 shows, the financial resources
allocated to this second category is larger in terms both of number of projects and of
amount of resources involved.
Number of P r oj ec t s
I nv es t ment s (M i l l i on of l i r as )
300
900000
800000
250
700000
200
600000
500000
I nv es t ment s (M i l l i on of
1 50
Number of P r oj ec t s
l i r as )
400000
1 00
300000
200000
50
1 00000
0
0
Head T own Rur al T own
Head T own of
T ot al
Rur al T own
T ot al
P r ov i nc e
of P r ov i nc e
Fig. 1. Investments and number of project financed for the Jubilee (outside Lazio)
by categories of geographical areas involved.
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The Italian Government has allocated 800 billion liras to the whole programme,
covering about 250 projects; more than 74% of these projects are developed in rural
areas involving more than 50% of the financial resources.
Fig. 2. Regional territories interested by Jubilee 2000 Itineraries.
These projects develop along itineraries (“Percorsi Giubilari”, see fig. 2) with
the intention to conduct many visitors in peripheral places that, otherwise, would be
ignored by the mass of tourists and pilgrims.
These “Percorsi Giubilari” were historically used by thousands of pilgrims on
their way to Rome. They are:
Via Appia
Via Appia Traianea
Via Flaminia
Via Francigena
Via Romea
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The interest of this programme is that it is built around the concept of
‘networking’. Cultural, tourist and religious itineraries are prototype of networks that
allow to rediscover the values of rural areas: cultural heritage, the natural beauties and
traditions.
The network touching and integrating different places, provides externalities that
consist in reaching the critical mass of tourist demand: dispersed and peripheral areas
would otherwise be visited only by a few number of people.
The implementation of religious itineraries incorporating different dispersed
monuments and attractions generates an important synergy effect, which is a typical
network esternality: the achievement of a critical mass of tourists which justifies the
financial resources allocated to peripheral and non-primary religious places.
Moreover the integration of these places and monuments generates
complementarity effects related to the integration of tours offering at the same time
religious, artistical and natural destinations.
2. KEY ISSUES
The key issues of this case-study are related to the idea that the “Percorsi Giubilari”
express an interesting example of a network. The case-study aims at demostrating:
1. the building up of a network through projects supported by public money. In the
case of the “Percorsi Giubilari”, the network concept is:
- embedded in the general project which is addressed to the historical itineraries,
representing networks of cities;
- embedded in some specific projects that develop a network structure connecting
activities and places;
2. the achievement of network advantages, which is related, in the case of “Percorsi
Giubilari”, to the improved visibility, accessibility and intrinsic value of religious
and cultural monuments and places of secondary importance located in rural areas.
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3. THE PROJECTS
3.1
THE GENERAL IMPORTANCE OF THE PROGRAMME
The government program for the Great Jubilee includes about 800 billion Italian Liras
destined to 263 specific projects. The programme defines three categories of projects
related to:
-
welcoming, which include the development of the primary needs for the pilgrims
and tourists;
accommodation, which take into consideration the development of mid-range hotels,
camping, low cost residences, religious institutes, etc.;
artistical heritage, composed by projects related to museums, monument restoration
and conservation.
Each project is associated to a specific “Percorso Giubilare”. Table 1 presents the
number of projects financed and the resources effectively destined, by each “Percorso
Giubilare” and project category.
3.1 PROJECTS REFERRING TO THE NODES OF THE NETWORK
As said, not all the projects are directly devoted to create a network. Part of them are
developed to improve the efficiency of a single mode of the network and so, only
indirectly, they contribute to the building up of the network. The projects described in
this section, referring to accommodation, welcoming and artistical heritage, present this
characteristic.
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Percorso Giubilare
Via Appia and Via
Appia Traianea
Via Flaminia
orientale
Via Francigena and
Welcoming
Artistical Heritage
Accommodation
Total
Investment
46923
30497
85112
162532
Number of
projects
21
10
32
63
Investment
36949
24362
74004
135315
Number of
10
16
15
41
projects
Investment
69843
114802
280730
465375
Number of
38
62
59
159
153715
169661
439846
763222
69
88
106
263
Via Romea
projects
Total investment
Total number of projects
Tab. 1. Number of project financed and resources allocated (Million of liras).
3.1.a Accommodation and welcoming
600 billion liras have been spent in about 180 projects to organise an information
system to book hotel, restaurant etc., to guarantee low cost accommodation in structures
that are not usually devoted to accommodation (schools, religious institutes, etc.) and to
prepare new structures (restaurants, hotels, holiday villages, residences, etc.). Figure 3
presents the location of this kind of projects. The interesting element emerging from it is
that most of the projects are located in rural and peripheral areas.
It is the case of the project for “Appia Antica”, an agreement signed by public,
private and religious organisations to improve and enlarge accommodation structures.
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Fig. 3. Regional territories interested by projects to improve accommodation (in red).
Welcoming projects are also structured around cooperation and synergic efforts:
the implementation of public security services, information services, sanitary services
and training of welcoming volunteers are profitable investments because they achieve a
critical mass of demand. For the welcoming projects the government has invested about
150 billion liras (see fig. 4).
3.1.b Artistical Heritage
For the Jubilee, in eleven Italian regions, 90 work sites have been opened and
about 130 billion Italian Lira have been invested in qualified projects to protect and
improve the cultural arts present in the territory (see fig. 5). These projects may
constitute a reason for cultural and tourist attraction for rural and peripheral areas.
In Tuscany, for example, ten important basilicas were chosen to be equipped
with new lighting system for masterpieces (frescos, panels, bas-reliefs along with other
rooms and works of art). These ten monuments are on the main Jubilee route and are
part of the traditional pilgrimage destinations most of them in remote areas.
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Fig. 4. Regional territories interested by projects to improve welcoming (in blue).
3.2
PROJECTS REFERRING TO THE NETWORKING OF NODES
Many projects are structured with the consciousness to be part of a network and
they have been studied to be highly interconnected. They regard the information system,
the transportation, the communication, the services and the art census.
Private organisations, foundations and tour operators have looked for solutions
in order to maximise the present facilities in the area and develop organisational
measures. In particular, they offer special opportunities to book tours that include
transfer from the place of arrival to the place of residence and back at the moment of
departure, accommodation and guided tours.
Many public administrations and religious organisations have organised a lot of
itineraries directly connected with numerous and interesting events (musical, cultural,
sports, exhibits, theatre, ballets, conferences) which enrich and gladden the presence of
tourists in Italy.
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For example, The Province of Parma proposes a guide for “The Via
Francigena”, an historical itinerary leading to Rome from Canterbury which in the past
was used by thousand of pilgrims on their way to Rome. In this guide the tourist can
find indications about history, nature and a census of all the attractions and also
information about cultural, singing and sports events that they may find in the towns
(small and peripheral, too) “touched” by “The Via Francigena”. This guide is an
example of a marketing strategy common to several places in the province.
Fig. 5. Regional territories interested by projects for artistical heritage (in green).
Another example is proposed by the Region of Tuscany that has developed a
project for “Informative Sign” relating to the historic-religious-cultural estate. The
signs, besides having its own intrinsic value, constitutes a link in the chain of
instruments that aim at amplifying and deepening the knowledge of the region’s cultural
heritage, not only in usual destination (Florence, Siena, Pisa, etc.) but also in rural
towns. This fosters the importance of that heritage and develops the local communities’
sense of responsibility towards it, thus contributing to its safe preservation. The
fundamental objective is that of creating a system of informative signs for the cultural
estate, coherent and consistent throughout the entire region, uniform in length of content
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and graphic layout. It seeks to avoid overlapping of material and to co-ordinate the local
administrations under one umbrella to avoid the risks of littering the environment with
too many signs.
Integrated
systems of visitors
flow management
Via Appia and Appia
Traianea
Sanitary
services
Systems of urban and
extra-urban area
equipped for rests and
refreshment
Tourist
information
services
Tourist signs
and itineraries
Total
Investment
431
2540
37538
5860
400
46769
Number of
projects
1
1
8
3
1
14
Via Flaminia orientale Investment
6512
16337
22849
Number of
projects
1
3
4
Via Francigena and Via Investment
Romea
14916
3740
33493
3522
8304
63975
Number of
projects
5
1
15
3
7
31
21859
6280
87368
9382
8704
133593
7
2
26
6
8
49
Total investment
Total number of projects
Tab. 2. Number of project referring to the networking of nodes financed and resources
effectively destined (million of liras).
Table 2 indicates the number and financial resources devoted to interventions that can
be easily related to a network approach such as integrated system of visitors flow
management, sanitary services and tourist information services conceived to achieve a
critical mass of users. More than 130 billion liras are distributed among 49 projects.
3. CONCLUSIONS
The aim of the case study was to present an example of a large public program based on
the notion of a network of actors and places. Clear advantages emerge for rural and
peripheral areas when the programme is run on the idea of network integration and
synergy. The mass of tourists arriving for the Jubilee to Rome easily becomes an
important development opportunity for these rural areas which will achieve a critical
mass and sufficient attractiveness of their religious artistical heritage thought the
networking project.
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As the case study shows, the concept of the network is embedded in the programme
itself and also in specific projects; these latter aim at reaching a critical mass of users for
the development of all services and facilities necessary for managing the large expected
flows of visitors.
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