The challenge

How to make memory tourism more sustainable and resilient? How to reconcile the duty of remembrance with the environmental demands of the present and the future? The PPSF – Preserving the Past, Securing the Future project was created to address an issue that is as urgent as it is sensitive: preserving the places and memory values associated with World War II by promoting innovative and sustainable practices in the management of memory sites and itineraries.

The partnership

A high-profile international consortium, coordinated by the LRE Foundation, a European reference network for World War II memory, and composed of organizations with expertise in tourism sustainability, academic research and museum management. Italy is represented by the Campus Foundation, recognized for its commitment to education and research on responsible tourism.

My role

I play a key and articulated role in the PPSF project: I am project manager of the Campus Foundation, responsible for the proper progress of project activities, but also principal investigator of the needs analysis on the entire European memory tourism sector.
This responsibility is not accidental: I have behind me a well-established experience as a professor of marketing in the Tourism Science degree program at theUniversity of Pisa (Department of Political Science), and a long activity in the field of European planning and applied research.

The difficulties and skills required

The international nature of the project, its interdisciplinary nature, and the sensitivity of the topic require a high command of foreign languages (English first and foremost) and solid interaction skills with cultural, institutional, and academic partners from six EU countries. Effective management of a European project in English implies not only technical knowledge, but also communication, diplomatic and scientific skills. For this reason, my university education and experience in transnational consortia are crucial.

The expected results

The goal is ambitious: to train at least 200 cultural and memorial professionals on the adoption of sustainable practices, to create a European network of knowledgeable stakeholders, and to propose guidelines, e-learning and policy papers to be disseminated throughout Europe. Needs analysis, conducted entirely by me, will be the empirical foundation for these actions, built through qualitative research, interviews, and comparative analysis.

What we want to learn

PPSF reminds us that memory is not just preservation of the past, but responsibility to the future. Sustainability in places of memory is not an option, but a moral duty. And that, through sound European planning, academic knowledge can be translated into concrete tools capable of making cultural tourism fairer, more inclusive and more respectful of the world to come.