Conclusion
The results of the survey performed in Sannio are indicative of the needs seen among students in respect of the integration of sustainability in the curriculum, but they go well beyond that. They also show what should be done to promote sustainable tourism in Sannio.
The natural heritage of a territory as well as the memory of the history of its culture do not have to be considered as an inexhaustible resource: in fact the value of the natural and cultural heritage has to be taken into consideration whenever we take a decision concerning the structure and the management of the environment. For these reasons the International Congress “Economic Development and Sustainability: the Environmental and Cultural Tourism as New Occupation Opportunity” (2-6 November, 2000) was organized in Anacapri, a Municipality of Capri Island. One of the results of the Congress has been the establishment of the Academy of Environmental and Cultural Tourism and Integrated Managment of Coastal Line.
The Congress included discussions on the following aspects:
1.(1) Sustainable development and prospective employment.
2.(2) The nature/culture relationship in environmental tourism management.
3.(3) The recovery of handicraft and typical products.
4.(4) Tourism and protected areas.
5.(5) Integrated management of coast and nautical tourism.
6.(6) The school’s role in promoting the environmental and cultural tourism values.
The Academy is a training centre and one of its objectives is the integrated planning of cultural routes in various sites of Mediterranean countries. Its aim is to determine a synthesis of these cultures also in the research activity and technological progress, always in the light of the environmental sustainability criteria, which are necessary for the survival of the tourist offers and potentialities of the Mediterranean countries.
Capri Island, an “open air museum” during its long tourist history, has lived through magnificent periods of economic advantages and has met with all kinds of tourism. But, at the same time, it has undergone many damages, hardly testing its resistance against the various environmental impacts.
However, this island, being an “environmental unicum” or an “ecosistem symbol”, has always demonstrated a great ability to recover.
In the globalization age, this concept can be applied also to other sites with a tourist flow at the limit of capability like, for example, the famous sites of Polynesia, the Carribbean and particularly many places in Southern Italy, where tourism plays a basic role in their economy. The establishment of the Academy occurs in a very important period of the Italian university system growth – conforming, with regard to the structure of the courses, to the European one (basic course of three years and specialising course of two years and masters). Before the reform, only short degrees and diplomas in Management of Tourist Services were available in Italy. This was in the Sannio University itself.
The Italian University System Reform, starting by next November, provides for the following basic degree course: Tourism Science, Tourism Economy; and the following specialised degree courses: Environmental and Cultural Science, Tourism Management Expert of Environmental and Cultural Tourism. This Masters could be carried out by a European university network and could have the following structure:
•Ecology.
•Environmental culture.
•Botany and phytogeography.
•Zoology and zoogeography.
•Tourism geography.
•Environmental education.
•Geology.
•National, regional and European tourist law.
•Rural culture and agritourism.
•Archaeology and art.
•Tourist psychology.
•Landscape ecology.
•Urban ecology.
•Tourist sociology.
•Transport and tourism.
•Marine archaeological heritage.
•Information technology
•Protected areas and parks.
•Typical food and tourism.
•Tourist strategies in European Union.
It is believed that co-operation between universities in the Mediterranean and other regions (e.g. the Baltic) could be useful in allowing an exchange of ideas and experiences applying sustainability to a concrete and economically relevant area such as tourism.