ABSTRACT
This chapter covers a project of cross-border cooperation “Slow Tourism” for slow paths between Northeastern Italy and Western Slovenia between 2007 and 2013. The aim of the project was to utilize slow tourism to increase EU integration across borders and further economic development. Through the project, the program anticipated new tourism trends (rejection of certain forms of mass tourism, diversification of destinations, proliferation and de-differentiation of alternatives, interest in green and active tourism, etc.) and recognized the positive role that these trends have on the protection of cultural heritage and landscape and to avoid the depopulation of peripheral areas. Through interviews with the operators who have joined the network Slow Tourism and slow tourists, the chapter outlines successes and limitations of the project and the implications for sustainable development through slow tourism. Furthermore, attention is given to the links with other cross-border projects that enhance the promotion of slow (cycling, walking, food and wine, fishing, etc.) activities, highlighting how the spatial planning of the Upper Adriatic identifies and supports tourism based on sustainability, authenticity, specificity and environmental protection, the keys for its economic development. The project has seen the participation of thirty institutional partners and it has built cross-border cooperation in an area historically characterized by cultural complexity and cohabitation of different ethnic groups.
Moreno Zago: 0000-0001-8374-5419
