Talking about accessibility, an effective conservation strategy of cultural landscapes must take into account both for tangible and intangible heritage. Going beyond the traditional concept of accessibility as a strategy for overcoming an architectural barrier, it is crucial to expand the concept and turn it into the ability to enable interaction with heritage in its entirety.
While, on the one hand, the Council of Europe, with the “Faro Convention” (2005), introduced the concept of heritage communities, on the other hand ICOMOS has recognized, with the “Charter for the Interpretation and the Presentation of Cultural Heritage Sites” (2008), the central role of the conceptual value of heritage. Community has thus acquired a new role, which has recovered the value of the responsibility linked to the society/culture relationship. It is not possible to effectively preserve cultural heritage without the active engagement of communities.
In order to foster community participation and to ensure the function of global pedagogy of cultural heritage, it is necessary to establish methods that make ‘integrated accessibility’ a fundamental condition. It is necessary to overcome the purely compensatory use of ICTs, but rather to promote a broader vision of policy making and strategic actions: physical, cognitive, sensorial and semiotic accessibility must be taken into account in a holistic strategy for heritage conservation.
Interpretation, accessibility and correct communication are the basis for new paradigms of tourism, based on the values of sustainability and inclusion. Heritage conservation responsibilities, global sustainability and new market trends have introduced the theme of experiential tourism, enabling the integration of material and immaterial heritage into an economic framework.
The article analyses criticalities and potentialities for the development of cultural tourism models in relation to tangible and intangible heritage, addressing the issue of full accessibility as the cornerstone of each model of development.
