NETWORKS FOR LOCAL DEVELOPMENT. PLANNING A LOCAL FESTIVAL (CAL-ITER) OF THE AVELLINO’S CHEESE INDUSTRY

Abstract

This paper proposes a project - a local festival (Cal-Iter) of the Avellino’s cheese industry - for local development that adopts a systemic approach which goes beyond a traditional place marketing approach. The approach followed in this contribution starts from a literature review of two different strands of study that have offered insights with regard to place management.
Then, the proposed project is developed by means of Network Analysis, which supports the identification, analysis and description of relationships and roles of partners in the network.

The analysis of the status quo found that the implementation of integrated projects require local participation of Cities (Submitting Subjects), Regional and Provincial Authorities (Co-ordinating Subjects), the Government and the EU (Regulating Subjects). Furthermore, the analysis of existing projects redefined the guidelines of Avellino’s local development, by adopting a systemic approach. The proposed project may be an important factor both to support the “food and wine” tourism and to attract investments for the entire province of Avellino. Moreover, the consolidation of the “place identity” is further enhanced through the integration of “place communication”, according to a systemic perspective (Siano et al., 2008). The study represents a first step in the planning of local networks for the enhancement of local areas. This has dual value: on the one hand, to stimulate tourism demand and on the other, to attract investments capable of generating further demand for goods/services in the area.
KEY WORDS local development | local system, networks | festivals | "wine and food" tourism.