As many territories nowadays risk losing their identity due to mass tourism, it is important to recognise the role of local communities in valuing their cultural heritage. Community-based tourism offers an approach that places people at the centre, recognising their active role in preserving, interpreting, and transmitting both tangible and intangible heritage. It is not only about attracting visitors, but about bringing development rooted in the needs, resources, and visions of the communities themselves.
It is within this context that the Borgo Danilo Dolci, in Trappeto (PA), opened its doors on Thursday 12 March 2026 to host the first Community Workshop of HERITAS, which approaches responsible and sustainable tourism not only as a practice, but as a collective process of local activation.
Shrinking communities, vanishing traditions, places losing their identity. The event tackled these challenges head-on, exploring how community-based tourism and the valorisation of tangible and intangible cultural heritage can become concrete tools for sustainable development. Through participatory workshops and collective dialogue, participants were invited to imagine alternative futures for their territories — futures built not on resignation, but on shared action.
Choosing the Borgo Danilo Dolci as the home of the Atelier was no accident: founded by Danilo Dolci — intellectual, activist, and poet of nonviolence — this space in the heart of western Sicily has long served as a living laboratory of community participation and grassroots development. No place could better embody the spirit of a project rooted in the belief that communities hold transformative power over their own territories.
The gathering brought together a diverse and representative audience: local businesses and economic stakeholders, local institutions, the student community, and cultural associations. This plurality of voices enriched the conversation, demonstrating how collaboration between different actors and initiatives across the territory can generate shared visions — capable of giving meaning and a future to the places we risk losing.
This first Community Atelier opens a longer journey: the building of a living network of people, knowledge, and places united by the conviction that cultural heritage is not merely an inheritance from the past, but a lever for the future. The next events will take place on 25 and 30 March 2026, and will be an opportunity to deepen the co-constructed strategies developed with the communities of Trappeto, Partinico, Balestrate, and surrounding areas — a path that also looks beyond national borders, toward Tunisia, the project’s partner country.
The event was organised by the project’s Italian partners, CESIE ETS and Le Vie dei Tesori, in synergy with EXTOR, a territorial initiative promoting models of responsible tourism driven by LAND Impresa Sociale.
About the project
HERITAS is a project funded by INTERREG NEXT Italie-Tunisie.
Partner
- CESIE ETS (Italy), Coordinator
- Le Vie dei Tesori (Italy)
- CAWTAR (Tunisia)
- ANIMED (Tunisia)
For further information
Read more about the project.
Contact Antonina Albanese: antonina.albanese@cesie.org.
