Technology, Communication, and Sustainable Tourism: Exploring New Approaches for Heritage and Research
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Date
2025
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
The Eurographics Association
Abstract
This paper investigates how digital technologies can foster more sustainable cultural tourism by addressing key challenges such as overtourism, limited accessibility, and disengagement with lesser-known heritage. As tourism places increasing pressure on cultural and natural resources, digital innovation offers new strategies for enhancing access, redistributing visitor flows, and enriching interpretive experiences through immersive storytelling and participatory design. Three case studies have here been identified to illustrate distinct technological solutions, virtual reality, hybrid web-based collaboration, and mobile gamification, each contributing to sustainable tourism in unique ways. A Night in the Forum is a VR narrative game set in the reconstructed Forum of Augustus in Rome. Developed for PlayStation VR, the experience immerses users in ancient Roma through interactive storytelling. It enhances cultural literacy and reduces physical impact on archaeological sites, especially by engaging younger, digitally native audiences. Brancacci POV is a hybrid web3D application focused on Florence's Brancacci Chapel. It allows remote and onsite participants to explore a detailed 3D model collaboratively, guided by experts. Users take on investigative roles, analyzing frescoes with virtual tools. This model promotes decentralization, expands accessibility, and supports education while protecting a fragile heritage site. Ozan 1982 is a mobile game designed to redirect tourism from Salento's crowded coast to the inland town of Ugento. Through a fictional mystery grounded in local history, it encourages exploration of cultural sites while incorporating environmental messages via recycled art installations. It fosters awareness, supports local economies, and extends seasonal tourism. Together, these projects show how digital tools can support sustainable tourism by transforming heritage encounters into immer- sive, inclusive, and educational experiences. They highlight the importance of design strategies that are not only technologically innovative but also culturally and socially responsive.
Description
CCS Concepts: Applied computing → Education; Media arts; Social and professional topics → Sustainability
@inproceedings{10.2312:dh.20253321,
booktitle = {Digital Heritage},
editor = {Campana, Stefano and Ferdani, Daniele and Graf, Holger and Guidi, Gabriele and Hegarty, Zackary and Pescarin, Sofia and Remondino, Fabio},
title = {{Technology, Communication, and Sustainable Tourism: Exploring New Approaches for Heritage and Research}},
author = {Cerato, Ivana and Bonifazi, Federica and Pescarin, Sofia},
year = {2025},
publisher = {The Eurographics Association},
ISBN = {978-3-03868-277-6},
DOI = {10.2312/dh.20253321}
}