Sustainable and quality tourism along Saint Martin of Tours route in the rural area of Pavia

Between the end of the first millennium and the beginning of the second, the practice of pilgrimage took on increasing importance (Cohen, 1992) and Via Francigena, Camino de Santiago and other routes became channels of communication for the realization of the cultural unit that characterized Europe in the Middle Ages (Dallari, Trono, 2006). Although in recent centuries routes to sacred sites begun to lessen in their importance, due to the advanced secularization of time that remodelled lifestyle patterns, visions and perspectives, in the last few decades the changes taking place in the tourist sector have given new models of holiday and people rediscover spiritual historical and cultural meanings. From 1987 the EU programme “Crossroads of Europe (COE)” listed 29 cultural itineraries and the Council of Europe stated that “there has been a significant growth in religious tourism in recent years, particularly with a resurgence of pilgrimage to important shrines and a growth in more general spiritual tourism” and “the religious motive often means that pilgrims travel along specific routes to visit a number of shrines or even to complete lengthy itineraries” (Morazzoni, Boiocchi, 2013). The aim of our paper is to contribute to the analysis of the methods for promoting sustainable and quality tourism along European Cultural Routes. In particular, the study will focus on a specific religious itinerary, the Saint Martin of Tours Route, and territory, the North-Italian rural area around Pavia. The city was recognized in 2012 by European Commission as an example of Crossroads in cultural and religious routes and will attend in 2015 the presidency of the European Cultural Route of Saint Martin of Tours. The methodology of the research bases on a descriptive approach in the fields of human and tourism geography, with an emphasis on the concepts of territory and landscape, local systems and networks, using a deductive reasoning (Dematteis and Governa, 2005; Raffestin, 2005). The study will use data collected by internet surveys and by interviews to representatives of local operator that carry on marketing projects. As result, we will try to identify traditional and innovative marketing projects about Saint Martin of Tours Route for promoting the touristic products and their possible implementation in connection with the event Milan Expo 2015, which will be only 40 km far from Pavia and its surrounding.