Urban tourism and cultural identity in South-eastern Sicily

The present paper aims at showing by means of a compared analysis of the local tourist market and of some instruments of town planning how two events occurred in the early 1990s (the dramatic earthquake of 1990 and the administrative reform of 1993 in Italy which established the direct election of mayors) have gradually transformed South-eastern Sicily into a cultural tourist region. In the early 2000s, after the recovery of some historic centres, six towns of the area were included in the World Heritage List by UNESCO. From 1994 to 2013 tourist fluxes have doubled in the Province of Syracuse and grown by 65% in the Province of Ragusa. The feeling of the 'tourist destiny' has changed the economic attitudes of the inhabitants and the perceptions itself they have of the place where they live. Since the second half of the 2000s because of the economic crisis and the local political conflict the planning dynamism of this region has come to an end.