The European Cultural Routes as engine for sustainable development. The case of Via Francigena in Tuscany

Cultural and, in general, experiential tourism is nowadays a very promising market for areas so far remained on the margins of economic development, but rich in architectural and natural heritage. The initiative of the European Cultural Routes is therefore particularly interesting for a region like Tuscany, worldwide famous for the beauty and integrity of its smaller towns and rural landscapes. Public investments play of course a central role in these strategies of territorial development, and require increasingly sophisticated techniques for the assessment of economic, social and environmental impacts. When direct surveys are not possible, however, the use of existing data, appropriately processed referring to the area of interest, may be a viable alternative. The work presents the results of the application of three different estimating methods at the Tuscan case, based on geographic approach. The results are of course different, but they all confirm the widespread expectations about the leverage effect exerted by the cultural and landscape heritage on the local economic development