TourScience Plus: the project
The TourScience Plus project aims to develop and strengthen innovative and sustainable tourism (ecotourism) based on scientific observation to enhance the natural heritage around the Mont Blanc and in the Aosta Valley.
Scientific tourism around the Mont Blanc massif.
The Mont Blanc area and the Aosta Valley are important tourist areas, characterized by a high presence of winter visitors, but also, for much of the area, of summer visitors. Tourism is therefore the main mountain economic activity in the area. The health crisis has reinforced the already ongoing reflections on the diversification of audiences and seasons, as well as on the sustainability and adaptability of the sector.
Scientific tourism emphasizes experience, the search for meaning in travel, an encounter with an area and local stakeholders, or the visitor's acquisition of technical and scientific knowledge (learning travel). In general, scientific tourism is consistent with sustainable, environmental and social development, and therefore often falls into the category of "ecotourism."
A multi-approach to tourism science
In 2022 and 2023, TourScience Plus aims to explore facilitative and complementary approaches to reconcile tourism in general and science tourism, possibly participatory, open to different fields:
- pedagogical - design and implementation of modules in an already known and identified learning environment (school/student)
- participatory - inclusion in an active community of collaborators, particularly through digital tools and co-construction meetings
- patrimonial - targeting an audience that culturally identifies with the value of the identified mountain heritage for its educational and scientific discovery
- historical - in Chamonix, revaluation of an important heritage site of scientific research in the mountains (the Observatoire du Mont-Blanc)
- sporting and recreational - walking or cycling and facilitating mobility through marked trails and itineraries, particularly in Torgnon, in combination with the products developed during the previous project
The continuation of a collaboration
TourScience Plus builds on the experience of TourScience, a European project also conducted under the European territorial cooperation program Interreg Alcotra 2014-2020, which as early as 2016 explored two forms of science tourism:
- cultural tourism with scientific content
- "participatory science" tourism
The project is implemented in cross-border collaboration with the Centre de Recherches sur les Écosystèmes d'Altitude (CREA) and is funded by the Interreg Alcotra France-Italy 2014-2020 program with European ERDF funds.
Project Partners
CREA is the project leader and is a nongovernmental scientific and educational organization for mountain environments, based in Chamonix-Mont-Blanc since 1996.
The Aosta Valley municipality of Torgnon is located between 800 and 3,320 meters above sea level (Punta Tzan). With its 22 villages, its historical (Celtic presence) and natural heritage and landscape (microclimate and richness of the territory) is remarkable.
Project Observers
The Regional Environmental Protection Agency (ARPA) is an operational technical body of the Autonomous Region of Valle d'Aosta, with functions of risk prevention and environmental protection and dissemination. It was established by Regional Law No. 41 of September 4, 1995.
Other partners in the sector are involved in the project as observers to ensure wide dissemination of the project's effects: the municipalities near Torgnon, the ADAVA - Association of Hoteliers and Tourist Enterprises of the Aosta Valley, and the Community of Municipalities of the Chamonix Valley and its Tourism Office.
Contact
Municipality of Torgnon
segreteria@comune.torgnon.ao.it
Centre de Recherches sur les Écosystèmes d'Altitude (CREA)
Célia Bonnet-Ligeon - Project Manager
cbonnetligeon@creamontblanc.org
Charlotte Roux - Project officer
croux@creamontblanc.org