The sociology of tourism can be considered applied sociology. Therefore, it is necessary to ascertain the up skills of the sociologist in the process of tourism planning. The present paper refers to the idea of philosophic practitioner as a theoretical model and considers the sociologist as a facilitator of local tourism development. To this purpose, I discuss some topics and working tools that can be used when the sociologist is asked to help local stakeholders create significant involvement of the local community. In particular, I propose some self-assessment tools to be included in a tourism process centred on local participation. The paper focuses on fundamental questions concerning the techniques of bottom up regulation and the techniques to facilitate the passage from individualism to collaborative marketing in order to attract visitors suitable to the destination. The discussions are based inductively on tourism economic policies initiated inItalyto create collaboration between local institutions and enterprises aimed at integrating local resources (accommodation structures, transport, gastronomy, art and archaeology, etc.) and creating districts or systems of Made inItalyhospitality. The results indicate the sociologist of tourism as a facilitator of the collaborative partnership in support of the destination management. Many difficulties in creating tourism districts or systems are due to the absence of this type of professional figure.
KeywordsCommunityLocalFacilitatorSelf-Assessment ToolsLocal Tourism DevelopmentParticipatory PlanningMade in Italy Hospitality Industry
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