Building a new sustainable silk road: connecting people and culture.

The paper aims to analyse the role of a sustainable new ”Silk Road” to promote the connection with people and culture through tourism development. The Silk Road did not only promote commodity exchange but also cultural interaction. In a global scenario, infrastructures can prove themselves to be a fundamental instrument of global growth, creating the basis for a true interconnection between people, cities and countries. The cities and ports of the silk road were, for almost two millennia, home to one of the most significant economic, intellectual and cultural exchange endeavors in human history. We can consider it the precursor of the globalization. The ancient Silk Road formed the first bridge between the East and the West and was an important vehicle for trade between the empires of China, Central and Western Asia, the Indian sub-continent, and Europe. The Silk Road was more than just trade routes, it symbolised the multiple benefits arising from cultural exchange. The paper also focuses on the strategic role of Georgia in the Chinese “Belt and Road Initiative (BRI)”, which aims to connect Asia, Europe and Africa through five routes. Roads that go as far as Russia and Belarus led to the project crossing through Central Asia, including Georgia, in the form of proposed roads and railways. Georgia is under an increasing Chinese interest in the Central Asian corridor, resulting in huge investments and intensified trade relations with the region in the last few years. The paper is exploratory and analyses the existing literature, showing how, along the new Silk Road corridors, it’s possible to build transnational sustainable tourism initiatives to promote and develop shared heritage under the Silk Road brand.