Re-conceptualizing a Sicilian destination through the actor-network theory : the role of a gastronomic festival to run the economic development of a territory

Abstract

The paper describes San Vito Lo Capo – a tourist destination on the west cost of Sicily – by considering its human and not human (material and immaterial) elements. To depict this tourist destination, so to map and analyze the different involved elements and to understand the inner mechanisms of its functioning, the Actor-Network Theory (ANT) is exploited. A special focus is on the “Cous Cous Fest” and the role it’s played in the last seventeen years for the tourist (economic) development of the destination.