From Settlement Abandonment to Valorisation and Enjoyment Strategies: Insights through EU (Portuguese, Italian) and Non-EU (Albanian) ‘Ghost Towns’

Abstract

The abandonment of inhabited places is a phenomenon widespread on a global scale that has spanned centuries. It has led to the birth of the so-called ‘ghost towns’. These lifeless sites dot the internal Mediterranean and European areas, testifying to the changeability of the human settlements. Through a vision that reverses the paradigm that epitomises the ‘ghost towns’, these places can be transformed from a problem into an opportunity for the development of the territories that host them. The main topic of this article is to present and update investigations performed on three abandoned settlements sited in Portugal, Italy, and Albania in view of their tourist exploitation, considering three different tailored strategies: underwater tourism, dark tourism, and heritage tourism. For each site, we analysed the site history, the abandonment causes, and the territorial-geological features, thus arguing for the possible valorisation and enjoyment approaches with special attention to digital technologies, which are highly underexploited in the sector. This study, which is part of an international research landscape still in the initial stages, falls within the BEGIN project (aBandonment vErsus reGeneratIoN), which aims to develop a multilevel methodological–operational protocol useful in regional, national, EU, and non-EU contexts for the dissemination of knowledge, conservation, regeneration, valorisation, management, and fruition of areas classified as a ‘ghost town’. The research findings can be useful for scholars, practitioners, and local entities entrusted to manage the abandoned towns. Furthermore, the methodological approach followed in this research can supply useful insights into aims to valorise and enjoy worldwide ‘ghost towns’.