Regenerating through experience: tourism as a community social infrastructure

Communities are shrinking, traditional knowledge risks being lost, and younger generations are looking elsewhere to build their future: is it truly inevitable that valuable places such as Trappeto, Terrasini and Partinico are destined to fade away?

In recent years, the coastal and hilly area of the Gulf of Castellammare has been experiencing complex and sometimes contradictory socio-economic dynamics. On the one hand, population decline, an aging population, and the reduction of essential services are putting social cohesion and the transmission of local heritage and traditional knowledge at risk. On the other hand, the growth of tourist flows in Western Sicily, the increase in short-term rentals, and renewed interest in authentic villages and less crowded destinations are opening up new development opportunities.

Terrasini, thanks to its proximity to Falcone-Borsellino Airport and its strong seaside vocation, already attracts significant seasonal tourism, yet it struggles to extend the season and to distribute economic benefits across the entire local value chain. Trappeto, with its small-scale dimension and the legacy of social initiatives linked to Borgo Danilo Dolci, represents an ideal laboratory for experimenting with tourism models that combine inclusion, education, and the enhancement of both tangible and intangible heritage. Partinico, with its agricultural hinterland and its wine-making and artisanal traditions, is undergoing a profound transformation: agriculture in crisis, emerging forms of poverty, but also new entrepreneurial energies and spaces ready for regeneration.

In this fragile yet fertile context, what role can experiential and community-based tourism play? 

The latest trends in the tourism sector are clear: demand is growing for authenticity, meaningful relationships, and transformative experiences. Travelers seek craft workshops, rural trails, food and wine routes, territorial storytelling, and agricultural and maritime experiences shared with those who continue to inhabit these places. It is no longer enough to simply “visit”: when traveling, people want to participate, understand, and contribute.

For these territories and the people who live in them, this means activating concrete processes of social innovation: restoring unused buildings to create forms of widespread hospitality and hybrid community spaces; transforming local products — from olive oil to wine, from fishing to artisanal goods — into narrative experiences capable of generating added value; building stable networks among associations, cooperatives, social enterprises, and tourism operators; investing in training for young people and women in hospitality skills, digital marketing, and experience design; and, finally, developing a shared yet plural narrative that integrates coastal and inland areas, overcoming administrative fragmentation and competitive logics.

The need that emerges is clear: not only to attract visitors, but to generate rooted, inclusive economies capable of redistributing value within the community. Experiential and community-based tourism can become a concrete lever against depopulation, if built through participatory processes, with strong local governance and long-term visions. contro lo spopolamento, se costruito in modo partecipato, con una governance locale forte e visioni di lungo periodo.

Let’s discuss this together at the first Atelier di Comunità

The meeting will be an opportunity for listening and dialogue with associations, local organizations, economic operators, young people, administrators, and citizens, to bring out real needs, critical issues, and opportunities related to tourism as a tool for socio-economic regeneration.

It will also be a chance to jointly interpret ongoing transformations, identify still-unexpressed territorial assets — natural, cultural, and relational — and imagine new integrated experiential value chains between coastal areas and rural hinterlands, in order to build new operational alliances among the public sector, private actors, and the third sector, capable of turning ideas into concrete projects.

Take part in the discussion, bring your voice, and become an active part of your territory’s future.

We look forward to seeing you
Thursday, March 12, 2026 | from 9:00 a.m.
at Borgo Danilo Dolci, Trappeto (PA)

Free event (lunch included) — to join, please write to: aurelia.schera@impreasocialeland.org.

EXTOR – Experiential tourism for sustainable rural development is cofunded by INAPP – National Agency for Erasmus+ born from the collaboration of several organisations:

For further information about EXTOR, please contact Aurelia Schera: aurelia.schera@impresasocialeland.org.