Walking Tourism: Opportunities and Threats for Sustainable Development. The Case of the Va’ Sentiero Project

Purpose of the paper: Slow travel and tourism is a sustainable type of tourism from a social, economic and environmental point of view. The purpose of this research is to determine if and, particularly, how walking tourism can become an ‘instrument’ to share interests and protect the cultural, historical and natural heritage of a region. This research also seeks to investigate the ways in which funds for the development of walking tourism can be collected by exploiting mechanisms of citizen engagement. Methodology: Considering that the research topic has been under-investigated until now, we selected a case-study approach for this initial foray. However, this study represents the first step of a major research effort that follows the action research method to gain in-depth knowledge of this issue. Main findings: This study reveals the principal features of a project for the development of walking tourism and the principal opportunities and threats for all public and private stakeholders. Practical implications: Understanding the principal features of such a project is an important topic for the tourism sector, public bodies, crowdfunding platforms, not-for-profit organisations and citizens. Originality/value: To our knowledge, this is the first study to create a link between the development of walking tourism and instruments for funding it. Type of paper: Research paper