Planning for S.M.A.R.T. (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Resilient, Time-bound) development: a bottom up approach to lead knowledge-based tourism development in low density rural districts

The tourism potential of a region is linked to the possibilities to access, to learn and engage and to benefit from the broad use of places as primary opportunities to attract different categories of users. The development of low-density rural areas, affected by structural limitations in terms of accessibility, loss of population and public services and thus considered in isolation, is mainly related to their spatial configuration and to the organization of urban infrastructure and services. The authors present a work-in-progress for the Nurra region in the north west Sardinia: this is both a methodological approach that rewards co-operative capacity of stakeholders and an open government model to raise bottom-up sustainable mobility planning. The purpose of the paper is, at one hand, to represent and maximize the knowledge-based development potential of rural territories and their existing networks, and, on the other hand, to outline possible ways to enhance accessibility to information and services, both for residents and visitors, according to a permanent and replicable program. The first operative goal is the systematization of knowledge and access to material and immaterial networks, bringing together basic and different information for systematizing the tourism supply and the rational channeling of generated information to the private sector; the second goal is to structure a “territorial” sustainable mobility Plan through an organized system of links and information in order to connect and make accessible the rural and the coastal areas of Nurra, by identifying place-based areas of greatest strategic potential and available operators. Nevertheless, with reference to the operative goals, the involvement of small and medium enterprises, offering supply for services in the field of social care, tourism, mobility and receptivity, is the basis of the project and an essential contribution to the enhancement of the tangible and intangible heritage of the region. We think that open government and wiki policymaking (Cottica 2010) should be used in parallel with more traditional planning tools for policymaking. Our emphasis is on several alternative scenarios through the definition of S.M.A.R.T. (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Resilient, Time-bound) targets and indicators, strongly tailored to the context and able to identify and measure the elements that hinder or limit mobility and to reveal the possibilities of linking and reaching places, innovating the organization of services and the use of public spaces making them effectively available for different city users.