Let's innovate & leverage our Cultural Heritage

Be inspired just looking around you, we have immense potentials waiting to be discovered by a more sustainable form of tourism.

This is a great opportunity. Enhance and leverage the Heritage and cultural sector by empowering the right people, starting meaningful collaborations and innovative processes can be a powerful resource for the economic, intellectual, and emotional recovery of a Country.

“Heritage is our legacy from the past, what we live with today, and what we pass on to future generations. Our cultural and natural heritage are both irreplaceable sources of life and inspiration.” – The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

We are living in tough times, trying to fix the economy after the first wave of coronavirus without noticing the opportunities that are surrounding us.

I am from Italy, and to the UNESCO Factsheet of my Country says:

• World Heritage Sites: 60 (50 cultural as Venice and its Lagoon, The Sassi and the Park of the Rupestrian Churches of Matera, Piazza del Duomo in Pisa - 5 natural as Mount Etna, Dolomites, Aeolian Islands)

• Creative Cities: 9

• Global Geoparks Network: 10

• Intangible Heritage lists: 9 elements (to name few: 2013: The Mediterranean diet, jointly with Cyprus, Croatia, Greece, Morocco, Portugal and; 2012: Traditional violin craftsmanship in Cremona; 2008: Opera dei Pupi, Sicilian Puppet Theatre)

In times of crisis there are priorities, but what about the recovery phase?

It is clear that we have to live (at least for the next 2 years) with a new way of doing business (mostly remotely) and that tourism, one of the main asset of the Economy for most of the South European Countries has to change its purpose from privileging a "mass-tourism" (low- cost pack, low-quality and high-quantity) to more sustainable, qualitative, and responsible tourism, based on the respect and knowledge of the heritage and patrimony of the places/locations.

As Curti, Marinescu, and Xuareb say in their enlightening article "Innovative skills for cultural heritage managers in the post-COVID-19 scenario(s), most of the funding will likely go to sectors like Healthcare, R&D and so on. How should professionals working in the tourism sector, heritage management, cultural sector react?

"It may be worth considering other post-crisis scenarios where cultural operators were wise enough to latch on to the general trends and changes in society and, rather than aim for sector-specific actions, develop holistic visions where our work, in a way, renews its relevance to society at large. In this perspective, digitalization has to be part of the solutions sought, but cannot be the whole package, as otherwise many parts of our societies will miss out on what we hope will be our cultural regeneration."

1. Change your mindset, being open to react quickly to unexpected changes and challenges

2. Create a corporate culture which embrace innovation - at all levels - inclusion, and communication with the stakeholders, using the potentials of creative and innovative digital collaboration

3. Think strategically and holistically, integrating your organization's actions (could be a museum, an immersive experience, a natural site, an intangible and traditional patrimony) to trends and collaborating with other organizations in or out of your sector

Be inspired just looking around you, we have immense potentials waiting to be discovered by a more sustainable form of tourism.

This is a great opportunity. Enhance and leverage the Heritage and cultural sector by empowering the right people, starting meaningful collaborations and innovative processes can be a powerful resource for the economic, intellectual and emotional, recovery of a Country.

Because yes, we can "survive and eat" just with our heritage and culture (cit.).