Borghi ed enogastronomia. Prospettive di sviluppo del turismo nel post Covid

Small village tourism is a rapidly growing type of tourism. Initially defined as "minor tourism" (Dall’Ara and Morandi, 2010), this form has acquired increasing importance in recent years, establishing itself as a specific tourist product. In 2017, Italian small villages registered approximately 24 million arrivals, with a 6% increase in tourist nights spent (Istat, 2018). Villages tourism is driven by the interest of visitors to discover places other than traditional destinations, and above all characterized by local products and foods. Over 90% of the italian excellent and quality products borns in small centres less than 5,000 inhabitants (Fondazione Symbola-Coldiretti, 2018). Most of these places are small towns located outside the traditional tourist destinations. For 65% of foreign tourists in Italy, food and culture represent the main travel motivation (Coldiretti- Ixè, 2018). Furthermore, in the last two years, under the pressure of the current health emergency, Italian small villages have been among the most demanded tourist destinations as they are considered places where it is possible to enjoy opportunities and wider spaces, far away from crowded destinations, and where combine the need for freedom with greater security Starting from a reflection about current tourism crisis caused by the coronavirus, the paper proposes a change of perspective. Shifting the gaze from a mere idea of tourism as a development tool for territories, on the contrary, it points to the enhancement of small villages and local food and wine as concrete opportunities for the recovery and development of tourism itself in the post Covid.