Possible beneficiaries
We are looking for partners who can have an interest in promoting religious sustainable tourism (e.g. Greek municipalities where important places of worship are located).
Specific problem to be addressed
The role of transportation systems in tourism is fundamental. Transport infrastructures and services contribute to economic success of a region in terms of tourism, because transport accessibility of the region is an important element of overall attractiveness of the area. On the contrary, a poor accessibility level may lead to a lack of tourists, who may choose better accessible areas.
The transportation sector is a significant contributor to greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution. The awareness of the these negative impacts on the environment has been increasing, and a new form of tourism has been developing, known as “sustainable tourism”, according to which more people are looking for eco-friendly ways to travel.
A particular form of sustainable tourism is the religious tourism, which can help preserving natural resources, cultural heritage, and the traditions of a community, thus increasing also social sustainability.
The issue of the proposed project is the promotion of religious sustainable tourism as a strategy for reaching economic development, social inclusion and social innovation.
Main project activities planned
The main project activities relate to a network connecting some cities and towns where important sanctuaries of catholic and orthodox worship are placed. A particular focus is oriented to important places in terms of religious tourism, which are characterized by low levels of accessibility, and for which the presence of important sanctuaries or places of worship could represent a development driver for the area.
The University of Calabria is located in a land where the cult of Saint Francis of Paola (patron saint of the Calabria region) is enormously felt. Therefore, the project will involve the municipality of Paola, where the main Franciscan sanctuary is located, and other Calabrian municipalities, as Corigliano Calabro, where there are other Franciscan sanctuaries. Analogously, one or more municipalities of Greece will be also involved, where important patron saints are venerated and the most visited sanctuaries are placed.
The activities of the project will be oriented to the analysis of the accessibility of the selected places of worship, and the definition of strategies for developing a sustainable tourism.
A wider idea is to develop a sustainable transportation network connecting the various places of worship in order to increase the religious tourism with the aim of increasing the economic and social development of the interested regions.
Specifically, possible transportation services connecting the places of worship will be identified and tested, as well as supply services between the railway or local public transport stations located in the identified municipalities and the places of worship, using active and sustainable modes of transport, integrating pedestrian and cycle paths with local public transport services and planning "packages" of tourist services for accessing to places of worship that include cultural, religious and social activities.
Expected outputs and results
The expected results regards the identification of strategies useful for promoting sustainability in terms of transportation systems to access to the places of worship, but also in terms of social inclusions and culture heritage, and the successive experimentation on the field.
State your area of expertise / interest
The proposal is from the Transportation Research Group of the Department of Civil Engineering of the University of Calabria, Italy. Our area of expertise regards the transportation engineering, with particular reference to the transportation planning oriented to the development of sustainable transportation modes.