White paper on creativity - ebla center

Chapter 11image and a primary source ofinspiration for artistic creation.The landscape is a changeable, evolvingelement and, precisely because of this,offers a host of cultural and educationalfunctions. This “territory expressingidentity”, on one hand, lends itself tohosting art works – see, for example,sculpture parks or land art – andtherefore to being a cultural context andactive container and, on the other, is theobject “contained” in cross-regional andtransnational cultural projects,becoming a unifying element through itsdiversity.This is the case with the “CulturalRoutes”, and numerous projects todevelop the vine and wine landscapes ortranshumance roads, to mention only afew examples.In 1992 the World Heritage Conventionbecame the first international legal toolfor protecting cultural landscapes,including those on the list of theUNESCO World Heritage sites, but inItaly the complex legal regulationswhereby local areas, environment andlandscape are governed by differentlaws and different bodies have allowedthe neglect of the landscape to continue.A positive signal, however, has comewith the approval of the LegislativeDecree no. 63 of 26 March 2008,integrating and correcting the “Code ofthe Cultural Heritage and theLandscape”. Thanks to this measure,the concept of the landscape has beengiven a new unified definition and thesystem of responsibility for itsprotection has been better balanced bygiving responsibility back to the state,albeit in co-operation with regionalauthorities.11.3 Cultural tourism and artcitiesTourism in art cities: foreign anddomestic marketsIt has now been widely recognised thatcultural resources – whether tangible orintangible – are an important input forthe tourist industry.Cultural tourism – a phenomenonwhich is not easily defined xlvii – is anincreasingly important form oftravelling and holidaying, especially inItaly whose image is strongly linked tothe concept of culture seen not only asthe artistic and historical heritage butalso as design, fashion, folk traditionsand typical food productions.According to a survey conducted byDoxa, Mercury and the Touring ClubItaliano on Italy’s attractiveness forforeign tourists, on a scale of 1 to 10,the category of “culture, art” has thehighest score (8.28) followed by“cuisine, wine” (8.11) and “countryside”(8.10), while of the best known Italianplaces internationally the large art citiesare cited first: Rome (64.3%), Venice(35.9%), Milan (27.5%) and Florence(23.4%). xlviiiTo mention only a few figures, in 2006,of the 308 million overnight stays intourist resorts in Italy, 92 million werein cities with historic and artistic interest(33 million arrivals) with an increase inthe period 2001– 2006 of +22.5%arrivals and +13.4% overnight stays.WHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 261