The power of fiction in times of crisis: movie-tourism and heritage planning in “Montalbano’s places”

Abstract

The current economic crisis, and its effects on the European sovereign debt, has resulted in asignificant reduction in Italian investments in the field of preservation and enhancement of cultural heritage and landscape. In fragile contexts, such as Sicily, the contraction of investments has put further into crisis the already weak management and planning system. Despite this scenario of crisis, in South-Eastern Sicily, the province of Ragusa shows a significant resilience to the crisis also due to the "effect Montalbano" and the capability to rethink the traditional heritage policies (Magazzino & Mantovani, 2012). The paper, based on the analysis of the case study of South-East Sicily, reflects on these potential and conflictive elements genereted by relationship between cineturism and local policies.