The Cultural and Environmental Resources for Sustainable Development of Rural Areas in Economically Disadvantaged Contexts - Economic-Appraisals Issues of a Model of Management for the Valorisation of Public Assets

Abstract

Available resources to public policies are always limited: those intended for culture, too often considered non-essential to the development of the community, they are often essential in particular way. Ignoring the economic value of cultural resources, their conservation, costs and total benefits of cultural policies and investment projects with a strong cultural component, can lead to non-optimal allocation of resources, to degradation of cultural capital and to failure to exploit opportunities for development.Another important aspect is the use of resources for the physical recovery and reuse of assets, without adequate attention to the phase of management: too often you find yourself with assets recovered but unused due to the lack of resources for management. A method tested recently is the involvement of private companies in these activities: in economically stronger and more advanced realities, the size of the most significant tourist flows allows to reach levels of return on investment and so makes this a feasible solution.Cultural resources in the rural settings of the most economically disadvantaged areas are characterized by a not elevated number of visitors not spread in the same way throughout the whole year: in these conditions, because of their different costs structures, a company may not have sufficient profit margins, but a private non-profit organizations can achieve a balanced budget that allows the usability of assets of fundamental importance into development strategies based on cultural tourism.This paper focuses on the main economic appraisal aspects and illustrates a management model, economically sustainable, for the tourist value of cultural and environmental resources, particularly suitable to be applied in rural contexts and in economically disadvantaged realities; the analyzed case study is indeed located in Gerace, ionic inland town of Calabria, region of southern Italy.

The economic evaluations and the real estate appraisals for the effectiveness, feasibility and sustainability of urban regeneration measures

“…Thinking in terms of sustainability, the MCDM plays an important role in the path towards sustainability. To consider the development for sustainability means considering the multiple dimensions involved in the development and planning of the urban transformation (D'Alpaos, 2012), considering the development as the result on the short and long terms, interconnected social, economic, and environmental objectives (Calabrò & Della Spina, 2013). For this purpose, the MCDM and in particular the AHP lends itself as a tool capable of dealing with this multidimensionality in an integrated way and reflects the complex interdependencies among the different dimensions of the transformation and reuse of the asset.…”

Community Led Practices and Cultural Planning: Methodological Approaches and Practices for Sustainable Urban Development

“…Attempts to resolve these problems do exist, involving a range of strategies from the development of new assessment criteria for the evaluation of the impact of cultural policies, to new approaches to integrating culture into the activities of governments and organisations [7,8]. In respect to the latter of these changes, the development of cultural planning approaches has been promoted to offer the possibility of not only producing a meaningful set of specific policies oriented at various understandings of 'culture', but also providing an over-arching framework within which democratic governments can effectively and efficiently serve their community [8].…”

The Management of Cultural Heritage: The Importance of No Profit Subjects

“…This does not mean that the no profit company can not achieve operating surpluses (surplus of revenue over expenditure), but that they must be reinvested in the business. It is also possible to find a high flexibility, due to the use of voluntary labor for the performance of fixed assets: this determines the reduction of fixed costs because the voice of personnel costs would drop significantly compared to for-profit subject , would also employed qualified personnel, since subject was born with a clearly defined purpose, is recognized and therefore entitled in the context in which it operates [7].…”