Root Tourism and the National Recovery and Resilience Plan. Measures for the repopulation of small villages

Roots Tourism is a type of tourism that allows, through the promotion of traditions, local excellence and small villages – that are the territories of historical Italian emigration - to intercept those compatriots abroad, interested in finding their own roots and rediscovering the places of origin. Italians and Italian-descendants living abroad are estimated to have a catchment area of over 80 million people. The main markets are made up of Brazil, Argentina and USA in which 75% of them live (Maeci, 2022). Italians abroad generate actually an important share of tourist flows which, unlike mass seasonal tourism or post-covid proximity tourism, is distributed homogeneously throughout the Italian territory and throughout the year. In this framework, the Italian Ministries of Culture (Mic) and of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation (Maeci) launched several initiatives as part of the National Recovery and Resilience Plan Project “Roots Tourism - An integrated strategy for the recovery of the tourism sector in post covid-19 Italy” The project, with a total value of 20 million euros, falls within the investment for the "Attractiveness of Villages" under the National Recovery and Resilience Plan and proposes various tourist offers aimed at Italian-descendants in the world. In particular, the measure, which involves small municipalities and territorial actors, is aimed at implementing initiatives within the framework of “2024 – Year of Italian Roots in the World” with a view to raising awareness among local communities on the topic of Italian emigration and roots travel and to creating a targeted and integrated tourist offer in the territories aimed at roots travellers. In this perspective, the paper analyses the strategies and actions as part of the PNRR aimed at promoting roots tourism. Through the analysis of the funded project proposals, the contribute aims to identify role that these initiatives can have in enhancing tourist offer and in relation to the possibility of attracting investments in the countries of origin, also in order to reverse, or at least, stem the emptying and depopulation process of Italian small villages.