Memory Tourism: Opportunity of Regeneration After Suffering, Loss, or Oppression

On the academic year 2023-2024 the focus of the Tourism Think Tank will be the memory tourism, through a series of activities that involve the participation of local institutions.

Motivation: Memory tourism has been defined as a new category of cultural tourism, particularly supported and organized by public actors at different level of scales. Dedicated to places of conflicts and painful memories, memory tourism has always had political functions, and it is now also considered to foster attractiveness and territorial development. It is therefore interesting to study the genesis and recent changes - managerial turn - of the public cultural and tourism policies. This complex process tends to affect profoundly place management, and also the way society deal with memory, commemoration and heritage. This managerial turn also brings new kinds of power relations among a great variety of stakeholders, who refer to memory of war very differently.

In 2023 the territory of Bergamo is witnessing the celebration of the Centenary of the fall of the Gleno Dam in Scalve Valley, for this reason, a visit of this territory will be organised from November 16th to 18th.

Teaching Activities:

• seminars for introducing theoretical and methodological aspects related to a critical approach to tourism and collective memory, where the latter is seen as an expression and active binding force of group identity.
• meetings with the stakeholders, for understanding the agency and the main governance behind a commemorative event or the promotion of specific places.
• excursions in the territory, in order to understand the consequences of the event and how it changes the places.
• group works organized autonomously by students.
• presentations of the result of the students’ work

Escursione in Valle di Scalve / Fieldtrip in Scalve Valley

TURISMO DELLA MEMORIA / MEMORY TOURISM

Opportunità di rigenerazione del patrimonio materiale e immateriale / Opportunity of Regeneration of material and immaterial heritage

Obiettivo

L'escursione si colloca nell'ambito del Tourism Think Tank del corso di PMTS, che, per l’a.a. 2023/2024, riguarda il turismo della memoria.

Il tema è stato scelto in occasione della commemorazione del Centenario del Disastro del Gleno. Per tale motivo, essa si lega al progetto di ricerca coordinato all’interno dell’Imago Mundi Lab in collaborazione con Scalve Mountain. Il 1° dicembre 1923, infatti, le comunità locali della Valle di Scalve (Bergamo) e in parte della Valle Camonica (Brescia) assistettero al crollo della diga costruita per sostenere la crescente domanda di energia elettrica dovuta al processo di industrializzazione in atto soprattutto nella pianura Padana.

Oggi la Valle rappresenta uno degli ambienti e dei paesaggi meglio conservati della Provincia di Bergamo, con un interesse turistico a diverse scale. Grazie alla sua morfologia e alle condizioni ambientali come l'esposizione al sole, il territorio della Valle di Scalve è particolarmente attraente per gli sport invernali come lo sci nordico e lo sci alpino, così come per sport open air durante le altre stagioni; d'altra parte, l'ampia presenza di beni culturali legati alle antiche pratiche produttive della valle, con particolare riguardo all'attività mineraria e all'agricoltura alpina, rende la valle una meta interessante sia per il turismo culturale sia per il turismo gastronomico legato alla produzione di formaggi ed altri prodotti locali.

In prospettiva, l'arrivo sul territorio di importanti eventi a carattere internazionale diventa un momento di riflessione per analizzare il futuro del turismo in questa valle, in chiave sostenibile ed integrata.

Objective

The fieldtrip is part of the Tourism Think Tank activities of the PMTS course for the a.y. 2023/2024 which concerns Memory tourism.

The topic has been chosen in occasion of the commemoration of the Centenary of Gleno Disaster. For this reason, it is connected to the research project coordinated by Imago Mundi Lab in collaboration with Scalve Mountain On the 1st December 1923, in fact, the local communities of Valle di Scalve (Bergamo) and partially of Valle Camonica (Brescia) witnessed the fall of the dam built to sustain the growing demand of electricity due to the process of industrialization of the Lombardy region.

Nowadays, the valley represents one of the best conserved environments and landscapes in the Province of Bergamo producing touristic interest at different scales. Thanks to its morphology and environmental conditions such as sun exposure, the territory is particularly attractive for winter sports like Nordic skiing and Alpine skiing and for other open air sports during other seasons. The broad presence of cultural heritage linked to the ancient productive practices of the valley, with specific regard for mining and alpine agriculture, makes the valley an interesting destination both for cultural tourism and for gastronomic tourism related to cheese and other local products.

Moreover, the arrival of important international events on the territory activated the need of a reflection about the future of tourism in Valle di Scalve, towards to the enhancement of an integrated form of sustainable tourism.

Partecipanti / Participants Università degli Studi di Bergamo

Professori referenti / Referent professors

Federica Burini, Andrea Pozzi

Professori coinvolti / Professors involved

Nicola Cortesi, Alessandra Ghisalberti, Andrea Macchiavelli, Lorenzo Migliorati, Stefano Morosini, Marta Pantalone

Tutor e collaboratori alla ricerca / Tutors and research collaborators

Alice Bassanesi, Elisa Consolandi, Mikel Magoni, Gregorio Pezzoli, Marta Rodeschini, Matteo Locatelli

17 studenti di PMTS da diversi Paesi del mondo / 17 PMTS students from different countries of the world

Asad Abbas, Bihan Banerjee, Maryam Fatahi, Irene Faustini, MohammadHossein Ghasemi, Kamyar Goodarzi, Aiya Kessikbayeva, Adnan Mustafa, Dorino de Salvador Arnaldo Muxlhanga, Anastasiia Poliankina, Parisa Rezazadeh, Giulia Rossi, Rubab Syeda, Elisa Scolari, Anna Skinner, Umut Tutar, Anna Zandegiacomo Sampogna.

L’escursione è un’iniziativa didattica legata al progetto di ricerca Verso una rigenerazione territoriale e reticolare della Valle di Scalve: un nuovo turismo per un nuovo abitare, coordinato dall’Imago Mundi Lab dell’Università di Bergamo, in collaborazione con Scalve Mountain e ETIFOR. Partecipa all’escursione il team di ORION di Antonio Iorio per una valorizzazione video-documentale dell’esperienza / The excursion is realized in collaboration with the research project Towards a territorial and reticular regeneration of the Scalve Valley: a new tourism for a new inhabiting, coordinated by the Imago Mundi Lab of the University of Bergamo, in collaboration with Scalve Mountain and ETIFOR. The team ORION by Antonio Iorio is participating to the excursion for the video-documentation of the experience

Contatto / Contact: federica.burini@unibg.it

TOURISM EVENTS IN A SUSTAINABLE AND NETWORKED APPROACH

Students enrolled in their first academic year at PMTS in 2021-2022 will witness a dynamic process of construction of a national event that will have important effects on the organisation of tourism in the territory of Bergamo with strong impacts at the regional, national and international level, as in the short period Bergamo-Brescia Italian Capital of Culture 2023, or in the medium period Milano-Cortina Olympics 2026.