Cultural networks for tourist development and consolidation in Southern Italy

This paper aims to identify methods and tools of cultural resources management that can help development and consolidation of tourist resorts in Southern Italy. The institutional and academic debate, supported by substantial empirical data, reveals how in Italy, and especially in Southern Italy, cultural resources could become an element of profitability and a strategic concept for the development of local economies, provided they are not considered separately, rather as part of a system or network of supply. This leads to focusing our analysis and research not on single monuments or museums but on models and tools of integrated management and enhancement of cultural resources, such as the City Card - already tested in many European cities - which could be useful for the development and consolidation of tourist resorts. Given the above, our research has been developed as follows: From a theoretical point of view, we investigated, first of all, those processes and paths through which the cultural resource becomes a product that can attract significant and qualified tourist flows. Then, from an empirical point of view, we focussed on Southern Italy and we examined a Case Study: the city of Naples. Among the many Italian art cities, it recovered competitiveness only in 1994, after a long tourist crisis that had afflicted the city since 1960. In particular, we analysed: -The tourist flows in the city of Naples; -The city council policies; -Results since the Campania ARTECARD - museums integrated network - was introduced in March 2002. The Case Study aims to evaluate whether Naples is moving from a revitalization phase to one of consolidation of tourist flows, and whether the introduction of Campania ARTECARD has helped this process.