Regional Mountain Conference

In times of climate change and an ever-increasing influx of visitors to the Alps, the development of tourism is a topic of great importance, especially in protected areas.

Uncontrollable global phenomena, partly resulting from the effect of social media, are having negative and uncontrolled repercussions in some Alpine locations, with serious consequences for the consumption of the landscape, the environment and precious and non-renewable resources, not only environmental but also economic, social and cultural. At the same time, other areas of environmental value remain little visited and at risk of abandonment. Another aspect concerns the increasingly significant trend of “tourist migration” to mountain resorts, which is concentrated in periods of the year when the climate in the plains is less favourable due to high temperatures, taking the form of a sort of “tourist” climate migration dictated by the need for a more comfortable environment.

In addition to the above, which involves significant movements of people to areas that are delicate and unique in terms of quality and value, it is increasingly important to develop adequate awareness among tourists and those who frequent the mountains of their negative or positive role in relation to the environment they visit.

New technological applications and innovative experiences in the sector can be useful in addressing these phenomena and raising awareness, such as the “ALTe – Alpine Leisure Transformation” project and other development proposals aimed at more effective management policies and actions based on structured, harmonised and comparable data.

New technological applications and innovative experiences in this sector can be useful in addressing these phenomena and raising awareness for the development of effective management policies and actions based on structured and comparable data for a shared and fact-based approach, combining data harmonisation, user-centred digital demonstrations and structured adoption mechanisms to provide transferable and scalable solutions relevant to policy and practice.