Patrimonio culturale e nuove tecnologie per la valorizzazione turistica delle città

Tourism is considered to be among the most promising sectors for the socio-economic development of many regions. In the current scenario, cities compete for tourism also in terms of the cultural heritage and creative capital they offer. In this regard, the important contribution provided by Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) for the enhancement and transmission of the urban cultural heritage is recorded. If the advent of the Covid-19 pandemic has had serious consequences on all sectors, and in particular on tourism, cities are among the most affected territorial systems. The need to restart safely and respond to new tourism needs should push them to reshape their proposals, making more effective use of the advantages of technologies. After retracing the main stages that characterized the transition from the smart city to the smart tourism destination, this work explores, through an analysis of the literature and some policies adopted, the relationship between the uses of ICT and the enhancement of cultural heritage; if on the one hand its weight will be highlighted within the most widespread indices used on an international scale, on the other hand a selection of good practices for digitized tourism promotion of urban resources will be presented. The aim of this paper is to be a useful knowledge base for further studies, including applicative ones, which take into account the impacts of the pandemic that is still in progress and the main relaunch actions promoted at different scales.