Deeper than buzz: ‘Slow tourism’ in the Monti Sibillini

Slow and steady … not too much change and nev­er too quickly … order and mod­er­a­tion … respect for long-stand­ing sources of susten­ance and shel­ter … pride in cul­ture, her­it­age, and tra­di­tion … Con­ser­vat­ive val­ues are often com­pat­ible with sus­tain­ab­il­ity in rur­al set­tings. Marco Ramaz­zo­tti dis­cov­ers that the buzz phrase ‘slow tour­ism’ describes what Monti Sibillini loc­als have always wel­comed. It’s a “Good Tour­ism” Insight.

More than a year into the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic and it is safe to say that the travel & tour­ism industry has suffered tre­mend­ously. In many des­tin­a­tions, the con­sequences have done noth­ing but add to pre­vi­ous issues, cre­at­ing even more bar­ri­ers to sus­tain­able tourism. 

The Sibillini Moun­tains region is no exception.

The Monti Sibillini Nation­al Park nestles between the regions of Le Marche and Umbria in cent­ral Italy. In 2016, the area exper­i­enced a series of ter­rible earth­quakes. Around 300 people lost their lives and many towns were ser­i­ously dam­aged. Already affected by an ongo­ing pro­cess of depop­u­la­tion before the quakes, the area found itself in a truly dev­ast­at­ing eco­nom­ic and social crisis after them. Not only did build­ings have to be rebuilt, but also a sense of community.

The Nation­al Park author­ity and many oth­er stake­hold­ers already knew of the huge poten­tial for tour­ism to help the area recov­er and repop­u­late. They pro­duced a five-year plan (2018 – 2022) for sus­tain­able tour­ism with the vis­ion to “fight decline and depop­u­la­tion” and sup­port recov­ery. Focus areas included a “slow and sedent­ary hos­pit­al­ity” and the “pro­tec­tion and con­ser­va­tion of resources”.

What is slow tourism? And is it really a new thing in the Monti Sibillini?

Slow tour­ism is a mode of travel that includes an altern­at­ive and sus­tain­able mobil­ity, engage­ment with the res­id­ent pop­u­la­tion, and con­sump­tion of loc­al goods. Slow hol­i­days are usu­ally longer in dur­a­tion and involve stay­ing in accom­mod­a­tion facil­it­ies that encour­age encoun­ters with loc­als, such as farm stays, self-catered apart­ments, or loc­ally-owned B&Bs.

Also see Yana Wen­gel’s “GT” Insight
“WWOOF! An altern­at­ive tour­ism in times of turmoil”

The Nation­al Park author­ity, which has been work­ing with sus­tain­able tour­ism devel­op­ment since the late 1990s, under­stands the import­ance of slow tour­ism. They con­sider it the only way to pre­serve the fra­gile nat­ur­al, social, and eco­nom­ic eco­sys­tem of the place, which is why they integ­rated the concept into their stra­tegic plan.

‘Slow’ is a rel­at­ively new buzzword in the Sibillini Moun­tains area. But after speak­ing with many tour­ism and oth­er stake­hold­ers, includ­ing Park author­it­ies, coun­cil­lors, edu­cat­ors, and com­munity organ­isers, it became clear to me that it has long been sought-after for years under oth­er guises. Every­one I spoke to agreed that everything imple­men­ted in the past, before the word ‘slow’ was added, involved encour­aging vis­it­ors to stay longer.

Slow tourism is now a shared mindset

Since the 2016 earth­quakes, more recent events, includ­ing the glob­al COVID pan­dem­ic, have under­scored the need for slower-paced, high­er-value forms of tour­ism in the Sibillini Moun­tains area. Indeed, accord­ing to those I spoke to, slow tour­ism is now con­sidered a require­ment to sus­tain the area’s unique mix of envir­on­ment­al, social, and eco­nom­ic con­di­tions. Slow tour­ism is now much more than a buzz phrase, a strategy, or a plan; it is a shared mindset.

Also see Phoebe Ever­ing­ham’s “GT” Insight
“Travel & tourism’s ‘crit­ic­al’ rethink […] shift to cir­cu­lar economics”

All the ele­ments that define slow tour­ism at the the­or­et­ic­al level, and everything that is being done to sup­port it, are now almost com­mon­sensic­al to Park author­it­ies and the man­agers of the edu­ca­tion­al and activ­ity centres. That is because the ‘slow tour­ism’ ambi­tion is the out­come of an organ­ic pro­cess of par­ti­cip­at­ive plan­ning that has involved sev­er­al indi­vidu­als and interest groups relat­ing their exper­i­ences and find­ing com­mon cause. They all now share the same ideas for tour­ism development. 

Slow tourism in practice

One then might ask: “How is all that trans­lated into the daily oper­a­tions of the loc­al tour­ism eco­sys­tem?” The Park Author­ity, after a long pro­cess of stake­hold­er engage­ment, has star­ted work­ing in con­junc­tion with the industry and loc­al admin­is­tra­tions across three primary areas to devel­op slow tourism:

1. Mobil­ity: The main­ten­ance and exten­sion of the cur­rent trail sys­tem togeth­er with bet­ter man­age­ment of tour­ism flows to avoid crowding at the most fam­ous sights.
2. Cul­tur­al her­it­age: The pre­ser­va­tion and pro­mo­tion of the cul­tur­al her­it­age of the area’s his­tor­ic vil­lages. Four of the 16 vil­lages inside the Park’s bor­der hold the “Ban­di­era Aran­cione” (Orange Flag), a recog­ni­tion giv­en to small towns that excel in cul­ture, tour­ism and hospitality.
3. Loc­al encoun­ters: The cre­ation of more oppor­tun­it­ies for tour­ists to meet loc­als, such as through the area’s tra­di­tion­al foods, cul­tur­al fest­ivals and events, and guided walks led by locals.

COVID-19 has posed new chal­lenges for the imple­ment­a­tion of these approaches in the Sibillini Moun­tains area. How­ever, it has also restored a strong sense of com­munity and high­lighted the need to work togeth­er to become more resi­li­ent. Going for­ward, everyone’s hope is to come out of this troub­ling peri­od stronger than ever and to wel­come longer-stay­ing vis­it­ors as soon as possible.

What do you think? Share a short anec­dote or com­ment below. Or write a deep­er “GT” Insight. The “Good Tour­ism” Blog wel­comes diversity of opin­ion and per­spect­ive about travel & tour­ism because travel & tour­ism is everyone’s business.

Fea­tured image (top of post): A lone hiker in the Monti Sibillini Nation­al Park. Photo cour­tesy of © Roberto Aure­li, sup­plied by author.

About the author

Born and raised in a rur­al area of cent­ral Italy, Marco Ramaz­zo­tti is a gradu­ate at Aal­borg Uni­ver­sity, Den­mark where he will soon earn a Master’s in Glob­al Tour­ism Devel­op­ment. Through­out his stud­ies he has focused on the rela­tion­ship between sus­tain­ab­il­ity and tour­ism, and researched the impact of the sec­tor on des­tin­a­tions. Mr Ramaz­zo­tti says he hopes to build a pro­fes­sion­al career in con­sult­ing for tour­ism des­tin­a­tions and to help tour­ism pro­fes­sion­als all over the world in their efforts to become more sustainable.