This paper considers the relation between tourism andudmobility and tries to highlight how tourism can act as a drivingudurban function in order to promote more sustainable lifestyles.udTourism and mobility are strictly connected: the moving fromudthe usual residential place for leisure or entertainmentudrepresents the essential condition of tourism. There is noudtourism without physical displacements, as the WTO definitionudaffirms, highlighting that the movement of people isudconnected to two different mobility forms. On one hand, theudtourist displacement is generated by the need to reach theuddestination (transit/access mobility). On the other hand, flowsudare generated by tourist activities at destination (visit, stay,udentertainment, etc.) and it could be defined as an internaludmobility. In both case, tourism represents a factor of humanudand environmental pressure. The WTO (2012) estimates thatudtourism mobility is responsible for 5% of CO2 emissionsud(referred to air travel) and points out that a change in theudstyles of tourism consumption is necessary also to meet theudchallenges of climate change that present cities must face.udTraditionally, tourism and transport have been consideredudseparately and mobility has been seen as a prerequisite ratherudthan an integral part of the tourist activity; rarely thisudconnection has been investigated in tourist planning and inudmobility planning. The movements of visitors had a marginaludrole before the acknowledgment of the sustainable mobilityudparadigm, which introduced the concept of efficiency inudtransport system connected to the reduction of theudenvironmental and social impacts encouraging modal shift inudorder to contrast the car-dependence. In the context of theseudconsiderations, this article tries to underline how tourism couldudplay a strategic role in promoting sustainable way of movingudinside the city if it will be mainstreamed within theudgovernment process of urban transformation. As a “pervasive”udurban activity, tourism involves different sectors (public andudprivate) and different social levels and it can act as anud“accelerator of changing” to improve a new mobility cultureudand to change users behaviors. Which are the conditionsudneeded to activate this change? This is the main question thisudpaper tries to answer also considering some significantudexamples oriented to integrate tourism promotion withudmobility planning.
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