The Touristification of War Landscapes in the Province of Trento

Abstract

The paper aims to investigate the impact of the so-called touristification of the war landscapes in the Province of Trento (Italy), focusing on the role played by local communities.Due to the increasing interest by tourists in visiting former battlefields and places that display cultural heritage referring to conflicts and wars, contemporary social sciences consider war tourism as a complex blend between social memory and tourism exploitation of territorial resources.After a brief summary on the academic debate about the link between Great War heritage and tourism, the essay assesses the main features of war landscapes in Trentino (Italy) and provides some suggestions for further research.

Keywords

• Great war
• War landscapes
• Tourist gaze
• Tourism image
• Community