|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
||||||||||
 |
 |
 |
|
||||||||
 |
|
||||||||||
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
||
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
|||||||
MOTRIS PROJECT
ARCES University College has been promoting MOTRIS, the mapping-out of Integrated Relational Tourism opportunities in Sicily. This project stemmed from research-work on the urban, social, cultural and economic regeneration of the historical city centres in the Mediterranean, carried out by Leonardi Urbani, Emeritus Professor of Town-planning at the University of Palermo, Faculty of Architecture, and in collaboration with a team studying the scientific and cultural development.
The founding principles of MOTRIS were the inspiration behind meetings and gatherings going back to October 1999, with the Euro-Mediterranean conference “Tourism as a lever for regional co-operation and development in the Mediterranean”, under the patronage of the President of the Italian Republic.
With the approval and financial backing of the Sicilian Regional Presidency, the MOTRIS research was carried out by ARCES University College in scientific collaboration with the CUEC - Cattedra Universitaria Edoardo Caracciolo - Palermo University, Department of History and Planning, and the results appeared in 2004 in the publication Motris, relational micro-centrality in the Mediterranean (edited by D. Gulotta, F. Naselli, F. Trapani), which was presented to the Sicilian Regional Presidency during the international conference on January 25th, 2005 at the Palazzo d’Orleans.
There was a firm belief in an investment in Integrated Relational Tourism (IRT) as a lynch-pin for the systematic development of territorial sustainability of the Regional economy, with the quality of work carried out bearing witness to this, and in September 2005, this was endorsed through Regional law no.10, (norms for the development of tourism in Sicily and urgent financial norms) published in GURS no. 39, dated September 16th, 2005.
In fact, paragraph 16 of the law states that “[…] in order to exploit relational tourism, with particular reference to the cultural values of the human and natural environment, the President of the Region is authorised to finance the MOTRIS project - Integrated Relational Tourism, approved by the Regional government with decree no.18, dated January 18th 2005.”
Mapping-out: singling-out of the local and territorial resources that comprise the tourism opportunities in Sicily from a relational viewpoint, geared towards building up a unitary system of Regional relational opportunities via the execution of ideas planned and shared by the local players, also via the organisation of data and information and experimentation of a territorial informational model (GIS);
Opportunity: organisation and handling of physical resources, infrastructure and skills present in the territory; encouragement of public/private co-operation capable of advancing systematic development of an integrated network between the players involved;
Tourism: exploitation of the quality of inter-personal human relationships, in order to overcome the dichotomy between traditional tourism “supply and demand”, through local “supply” based on genuine local resources;
Relational: focusing of development policy on local subjects, considered in their entirety as a) an irreplaceable patrimony, in the shape of the local community, exploiting social relations and developing genuine resources and b) a gift to be shared and a resource to be exploited, with a resolute, continual exchange in order to integrate culture and economy, whilst giving priority to human relations;
Integrated: experimental approach balanced between government action and activation of processes of horizontal and vertical governability (governance), in a framework of trans-activity, with approaches ranging from the multi-disciplinary/multi-cultural to the trans-disciplinary/trans-cultural;
Sicily: as a result of its geographical position and its multi-ethnic history it puts itself forward as a cross-roads for cultures, civilisations and peoples, as a fulcrum for the development of fresh relations and the triggering of synergy, and for the dissemination of a new way of conceiving tourism through the exploitation of inter-personal relationships.
General objectives of MOTRIS:
- Building up tourism opportunities that emerge from the local area, and steer the market (Marketing “from” the territory) and not vice versa, until reaching the proposed mark of local quality, which safeguards genuine local resources and the cultural identity.
- Proportional re-equilibration of coastal areas and their sprawling urban agglomerations with inland areas, directing the economy towards the interior of the island and refurbishing those areas that have been abandoned (both physically and economically).
- Re-distribution of wealth and economic resources deriving from tourism, so that these filter down in capillary fashion to local systems.
- Creation of a fresh approach for exploiting local resources (historical-cultural assets, typical activities and production, agro-alimentary produce etc.) to their best advantage, and in accordance with the logic of integrated reticular growth (building-up and singling-out of functional networks).
- Refurbishment of strategies and policies hitherto employed in tourism (“industrial tourism”), via the application of the principle of subsidiary development (from bottom up and genuine processes of governance) and active participation from local players (“home-grown tourism”).
- General improvement in living conditions of local communities and the combating of rejection and the already on-going migration.
- Adaptation of terms used in the tourism sector and recovery of original terms that are loaded with greater significance, such as traveller, guest, holiday, rather than tourist, customer, tourism.
- Innovation in the tertiary sector (studies and research) based on the “global objectives of IRT”.
