Descrizione

Cristina Canoro is Adjunct Professor of Organization of Tourism Enterprises at the University of Naples Parthenope, Postdoctoral Researcher at the Scuola Superiore Meridionale in Naples, and co-founder of the Campi Flegrei Diving Center. After graduating in Political Science at the University of Naples L’Orientale, she worked at Federico II University of Naples and obtained a PhD in “Business economics and corporate governance” at the University of Naples Parthenope. She held a postdoctoral role at the University of Campania Luigi Vanvitelli. After working in various positions in business and consultancy in Italy and abroad, she has been primarily dedicated to designing the promotion of underwater archaeological tourism using new technologies. She is part of the MeDryDive project, co-funded by the European Union’s Cosme programme, and is also a Guide for the Underwater Archaeological Park of Baia. She founded Legambiente Città Flegrea – an association which aims to promote sustainable development in the Campi Flegrei area. She collaborates with schools as an environmental educator, to support the promotion and enhancement of cultural heritage, and to stimulate opportunities to develop of the territory for future generations. Her main research topics are related to business organization, underwater archaeological tourism, and destination management organization.

This book addresses the complexity of the tourism systems built around underwater cultural heritage.

This book focuses on the importance – often overlooked – of underwater cultural heritage as a potential driver of economic development, especially through tourism.

This book identifies key actors in underwater cultural heritage tourism systems, the networks and coordination mechanisms that they implement as part of their activities, and the various technological options in the process.

The focus of this book is an analysis of underwater cultural heritage tourism through interdisciplinary contributions, each analysing a specific part of a broad system together with its overall organizational profile.

The lens used in this exploratory investigation combines several authors’ points of view and perspectives, integrating organizational aspects with the vision of archaeologists, biologists, and business and organization scholars. It includes a comparison on an international level, with a detailed look at the creation process of the Underwater Archaeological Park of Baia in Italy and the Xlendi Underwater Park in Malta.

We suggest reading this book to whoever is interested in underwater cultural heritage as a shared heritage with immense intrinsic value. This heritage can act as a driving force for territorial development, based on respectful and sustainable use of the cultural heritage and the marine environments in which it is found.

This book is recommended for those fascinated by the creation of a ‘heritage community’ as defined by the Faro Convention: “a group of people who value specific aspects of cultural heritage, and who wish, within the framework of public action, to support and transmit them to future generations” (The Council of Europe, 2005).

Readers are encouraged to approach this book with curiosity – to discover underwater cultural heritage and the remains of ancient civilizations hidden under the ocean, and to cultivate a sense of belonging to a cultural identity which links countries bordering the Mediterranean Sea.