Religious tourism and intangible cultural heritage as drivers for inclusive sustainable development: reflections from the international, European and Italian legal systems

The essay is devoted to highlight the interactions, from a legal constitutional perspective, between the international, European and domestic legal systems considering the category of “intangible cultural property” as a common framework for the development of sustainable tourism and, more specifically, religious tourism. The investigation discusses preliminary the international global law perspective, with the 2003 UNESCO Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage and the positive obligations of safeguarding traditions, rituals, practices and festivals. It further highlights the international “regional” law perspective, considering the Council of Europe Convention on the Value of Cultural Heritage for Society (Faro Convention) and the express link thereby made with sustainable development. A specific attention is also devoted to the EU and cultural heritage, considering its “united in diversity” and the dual dimension of the cultural, religious and humanistic heritages of Europe. This comprehensive framework is useful for the specific investigation of the Italian legal system where the difficult emergence of the concept of intangible cultural heritage reflects a long-standing materialist vision of the cultural heritage which actually ran even contrary to the Italian Constitutional, entered into force in 1948, where Article 9 placed among the “Fundamental Principles” of the Constitution, in providing that the Republic “promotes the development of culture and of scientific and technical research. It shall safeguard the natural beauties and the historical and artistic heritage of the Nation”, leaves room for an understanding of the term culture that, as emerges from the works of the Constituent Assembly, must refer also to the totality of human behaviour and beliefs. The essay thus highlights the restrictive approach initially taken by the Italian legal system, clearly disregarding the evolution that the category of intangible cultural property has undergone in both international and European law. A final reflection will be devoted to the convergent aspect that the international, European and national legal systems clearly affirm, namely a call for a participatory management of cultural heritage which can be of the most importance for tourism and its sustainable development, in general, and which is of the utmost relevance specifically for religious tourism.