FINAL DOCUMENT: SUMMARY AND GOALS
“Communication” working group Promotion of Sustainable Tourism Network of the UNESCO Dolomites Foundation
version 08/11/2024
Adopted by the Steering Committee with Resolution no. 04_a)-b)/05.2024 prepared by the Promotion of Sustainable Tourism Network Fondazione Dolomiti – Dolomiten – Dolomites – Dolomitis UNESCO foundation Loc. Acquabona n. 30 - 32043 Cortina d’Ampezzo (BL) – tel. +39 0436/867395
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Le Dolomites became a World Heritage Site in 2009. UNESCO status attests to the exceptional scientific profile and natural beauty of this area, underlining the need for an ongoing commitment to protect its integrity and promote its value. The World Heritage Convention, which establishes the List of Properties of recognised universal value, establishes that communities need to guarantee correct identification of the outstanding value underlying World Heritage status and preserve it for future generations. This requires sustainable management of the areas and attention to all possible direct and indirect impacts. The Convention emphasises the role of education, information and communication, on the basis that only by “strengthen[ing] appreciation and respect by their peoples of the cultural and natural heritage” is it possible to guarantee their conservation. Ever more frequently, UNESCO status is celebrated as a generic certification of the “beauty” of a place, overlooking the complex web of natural, landscape and cultural value that it recognises. At the same time, management of the Site is focused on promoting a visitor experience aimed at informed and respectful engagement with the area. Communication plays a strategic role in this context. On this basis, the UNESCO Dolomites Foundation promotes dialogue between representatives of various local areas and institutions.
BASIC PREMISES:
1. The methods and content employed for communication regarding the mountain region, particularly where aimed at tourist/recreational activities taking place there including hiking and trekking, alpinism, and sporting and cultural events have a significant impact in fostering potentially improper, and sometimes dangerous, behaviour for those visiting these areas and for the areas themselves.
2. In recent years, this problem has been amplified by the rise of social media and new forms of digital communication that escape both the planning and control of relevant local bodies, sometimes fuelling visions and conceptions that are incompatible with the principles upheld by the UNESCO Dolomites Foundation and the values underlying UNESCO status.
3. Beyond communication flows from uncontrolled sources on digital platforms (influencers, youtubers and bloggers as well as tourists who post and share images and videos), consideration must be given to the multitude of possible sources of information originating from parties operating in the area (organisations, institutions, tourism promotion companies, and businesses and private operators in the tourism sector) which may include the citizens/inhabitants of the Dolomites themselves. A call for greater awareness is necessary, considering that all parties are, to varying degrees, stakeholders and/or communication actors.
4. Mountain tourism, which has seen increased numbers and a profound shift in the profile of those visiting, requires significant efforts to guarantee sustainable development and to reduce the level of risk associated with the intrinsic characteristics (geographical, climatological and geological) of high-altitude areas. These efforts must regard both communication, with forms of nudging (recommendations and explanations) and warnings (dangers and possible consequences), and a regulatory component with which to establish sticks and carrots capable of guiding individual behaviour, alongside information and cultural-education activity, particularly regarding the values on which the World Heritage status of the Dolomites is based.
UNDERLYING GOALS:
Starting from these basic premises, the Foundation’s goal is to invoke correct, informed and responsible use of the various forms of communication adopted by all parties directly involved, first and foremost the inhabitants of the Dolomites themselves, in order to promote approaches to visiting tourist areas of the Dolomites that are aligned with the World Heritage principles and values upheld by the Foundation.
KEY ELEMENTS THAT COMMUNICATION MUST DRAW ON:
1. The values associated with World Heritage status and, in particular, the limits that this implies upon tourism, also in the context of maintaining UNESCO status. There is a call for a collective commitment to guarantee the integrity of the values on which World Heritage status is founded, from the area’s environmental quality to quality of the visitor experience, implying a balanced relationship between residents and visitors.
✓ Consequently, communication regarding the area and tourist/recreational activities within it, including events, must be rooted in and aligned with the underlying values of World Heritage status.
2. Attention to the management of tourist flows, with regard to overtourism, affecting many areas of the Dolomites. Whilst certain lesser known areas would enjoy socio-economic benefits from an increase in visitor numbers, there are hotspots that, during certain times of the year, exceed acceptable levels of anthropic pressure, with associated environmental damage (impacts on ecosystem), social damage (relations between tourists and residents) and, potentially, economic damage (reduced quality of tourist experience and decreased desire of unsatisfied tourists to return).
✓ Communication must have the goal of raising visitor awareness, taking into account the damaging effects of overtourism, and promoting and supporting a balanced distribution of visitors to the Dolomites, in cooperation with actors and decision makers.
3. Attention to the climate crisis and its impact on visits to the mountain region: the increase in extreme weather phenomena, and likewise changes in hydrogeological processes, have huge consequences on the alpine environment and landscape, and therefore on how they are visited. Hydrogeological instability, a lack of snow, a lack of water at altitude, and highly changeable and unpredictably intense weather conditions impact the tourist offering and the ways the Dolomites can be enjoyed for hiking, trekking and alpinism.
✓ Tourist communication must take this climate-change paradigm into account, promoting prudent and informed visits to the mountain region in light of the effects of global warming.
4. Attention to new forms of mountain tourism and the need to increase visitor awareness regarding correct engagement with the Alpine environment: considering the increased numbers of people visiting the mountains in recent years, often without an appropriate level of knowledge of the dangers associated with activities in high-altitude areas, impacts have been generated first and foremost regarding the perception of safety and risk, and extending to sustainability of the experience, sometimes generating expectations that are misaligned with the real context. These expectations, sometimes leading to demands, include receiving certain services and encountering certain standards of facilities, despite the intrinsically fragile nature of the Alpine ecosystem.
✓ Communication must favour and nurture increased visitor awareness, and discourage them from certain types of behaviour. In any case, it must never prompt or suggest actions that are not compatible with the intrinsic danger associated with visiting mountain regions. Communication regarding the mountain region may become an educational tool for greater awareness and respect of one’s own limits and those of the environment being visited.
OPERATIONAL GUIDELINES FOR COMMUNICATION REGARDING THE WORLD HERITAGE SITE
a) Propagate the indicated principles among all institutions, bodies and businesses, as well as inhabitants, involved in communication regarding the mountain region
b) Create, including through coordination with some of the above, communication approaches and content aligned with the indicated principles, combining forms of nudging (encouraging correct behaviour with appropriate reasoning) and warnings (indicating the negative consequences of improper conduct)
c) Disseminate an updated mountain culture, working with other relevant bodies (e.g. CAI Italian Alpine Club, the Mountain Rescue organisation, Educational Agencies, etc.), and amongst younger generations, beginning at school age
d) Launch collaborations with newspapers and magazines to help spread messages that raise awareness and which are aligned with the aforementioned principles
e) Promote a narration of the Dolomites World Heritage Site championing content that shines a light on its natural, landscape and cultural value and avoiding focusing exclusively on the “beauty” of its places
f) Promote forms of dialogue and discussion in the areas of the Dolomites involving institutions, organisations, businesses and local residents, enabling sharing around the identified principles
g) Interact with political and institutional bodies across the area in order to introduce rules, regulations and guidelines that are consistent with the indicated goals and principles, as well as introducing forms of monitoring
h) Ensure sharing of digital content aligned with the aforementioned principles anytime collaborations are established with influencers, bloggers or youtubers.
METHODOLOGICAL NOTE
The Promotion of Sustainable Tourism Network of the UNESCO Dolomites Foundation, in the context of the goals of 2024 planning, established a working group formed of technical personnel from each of the different areas, with the aim of exploring problems connected to promotional communication regarding the area of the Dolomites World Heritage Site. The members of this group are
technical personnel handling matters associated with tourism and marketing in the respective local bodies. Working together, they identified principles and guidelines for communication that take into consideration the values, fragility and problems of the Property. The Working Group established included:
Lucia Fenti – Coordinator of the Network for the Province of Belluno
Mara Nemela – UNESCO Dolomites Foundation Director
Mauro Pascolini – Representative of the Scientific Committee of the UNESCO Dolomites Foundation
Giulia Gelmi – UNESCO Dolomites Foundation
Giambattista Zampieri – UNESCO Dolomites Foundation
Damiano Tormen – Province of Belluno
Elisa Calcamuggi – DMO Belluno Dolomites
Leonardo Stramare – DMO Belluno Dolomites
Sara Zappini – Province of Trento
Chiara De Pol – Trentino Marketing
Stefani Zadra – Trentino Marketing
Morena Quaresimin – Region of Veneto
Elisa Tamburlini – Promoturismo FVG
Manuela Summerer – IDM Südtirol
Elisabeth Berger – Province of Bolzano – South Tyrol
Marcella Morandini – Province of Bolzano – South Tyrol
The working group also benefitted from the scientific coordination of Umberto Martini – Professor of Economics and Management at the University of Trento. Professor Martini’s support enabled identification of the issues for discussion in light of the analysis provided by the Periodic Report. Since February, four online sessions each lasting two hours have explored four different issues with input from various stakeholders who introduced the debate: the topic of the first meeting was Values of the World Heritage Site and concept of limits (integrity and authenticity) and saw participation of the Foundation’s Director, Mara Nemela, and Professor Mauro Pascolini. The next session looked at Management of Visitor Flows and Overtourism featuring a presentation by Director of the Adamello Brenta Natural Global Geopark Matteo Viviani. The third saw participation of glaciologist Jacopo Gabrieli and the Commercial Director of Dolomites Superski, Marco Pappalardo, focusing on the Climate Crisis and Impacts on How the Area is Visited. The Working Group concluded its four sessions exploring Visitor Prudence and Awareness, with guest Alex Barattin, representative of Mountain Rescue in the Belluno Dolomites.
A summary report was drawn up at the end of each discussion. All of these reports were drawn on for the preparation of this final draft, reviewed at the meeting of the working group held on 11 September in Trento.