A UNESCO Site as a Tool to Promote Local Attractiveness: Investigating Stakeholders’ Opinions

Abstract

UNESCO World Heritage Sites are a useful tool to protect and promote the legacy human beings leave over the centuries. Ivrea, a 20th century industrial city, is the second Italian industrial site recorded in the UNESCO World Heritage List. It is a city in the North-West of Italy, historically known for the Olivetti factory, which made it world-famous by combining visionary ideals and a careful entrepreneurial policy. Our study focuses on the tourism value of the Ivrea UNESCO site and, in particular, aims at analyzing the level of integration of local stakeholders and their ability to identify guidelines for the promotion of the UNESCO site in terms of tourism. The research process was conducted with an in-depth analysis of the perception and consideration of public and private stakeholders concerning this topic. A questionnaire was prepared by a group of experts and individual interviews were conducted using the Delphi method; then, the results of the interviews were presented and the identification of priorities was carried out using the nominal group technique. Results show that the new UNESCO site in Ivrea has great potential, both in cultural terms, continuing the dissemination of Adriano Olivetti’s ideals, and in terms of tourism, because it may turn into a tourist attraction capable of generating new tourist flows and promoting the Olivetti approach.