Reframing design for hospitality towards a cultural and sustainable approachto tourism

In the era of Great Acceleration (McNeill, Engelke, 2014), tourism is still considered one of the main tools for territorial development and for regenerating communities. The tourist-customer experience offered promotes the cultural development of a specific geographical context. These experiences are closely linked to systems of creativity because the experience economy (Pine, Gilmore, 1999) has accustomed tourists to the consumption of increasingly complex and articulated tourist experiences, based on values and codified systems of production and consumption that are constantly updated and characterised as true performances (Canestrini, 2016). From a design point of view, tourist experiences are closely linked to product-space-service systems, in which tourist infrastructures, including those of the hospitality industry, have contributed over the years to the reshaping of the physiognomy of landscapes and to the economic growth. However, globalisation and the democratisation of culture have led to the massification of tourist experiences, with the phenomena of overtourism, and the environmental and social impacts of related infrastructure. Global tourism has a relevant impact in the use of natural resources, such as water, and a responsibility in production of greenhouse gas and air pollutant emissions, energy use and production of waste (WTTC, 2023). The global health crisis caused by the pandemic was a setback for the tourism sector, in 2020 the reduction in global tourist flows was between 60% and 80% compared to 2019 (UNWTO, 2020). Today, aftermath the pandemic, and in the context of a series of environmental, economic, cultural and war crises that are severely challenging society's development models, there is a growing desire to concretize a responsible approach to tourism, even though in 1972 the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment initiated the sustainable development in tourism (Goodwin, 2023). Beyond the cultural capitals, small towns and less explored localities, such as inland areas and highlands, which often have tangible and intangible heritage of great value, tend to want to take on an identity of their own, expressing their own historical, natural, artistic, craft and gastronomic specificities. In this scenario, the creativity system becomes fundamental to the sustainable development of the tourist experience. Individuals, guests and host communities, increasingly concerned with sustainability issues, are promoting new “tourist's gaze” (Urry, 1995). The tourism sector as a whole, and the hospitality industry in particular, is beginning to recognise the importance of actively working towards sustainable approaches (WTTC, Kigali 2023). In particular, on one side the aim is to engage local communities, enhance their well-being, promote culturally based social regeneration and provide accessible and inclusive cultural experiences for all types of tourists. On the other side, tourism needs to understand how the experiences and the system of spaces - products - services associated with them can actively contribute to solving certain environmental problems, such as water pollution, as well as to the restoration and regeneration of nature. Indeed different geographical contexts must face the changes brought about by climate change, which is altering and, in some cases, irreversibly disrupting the conformation of places, as is happening in the areas affected by desertification. A design-led approach can be used to rethink the guest experience and develop innovative strategies capable of connecting the needs of new generations of customers with physical spaces and natural environments, while restoring natural ecosystems. Design can explore a dimension of hospitality and reconfigure the entire system of spaces and products related to the tourism experience, as well as communication campaigns and strategies to engage local communities. The goal for the future is to allow people to access of responsible tourism experiences, transforming tourism into not only a sustainable activity for the environment, but also a way to restore biodiversity and regenerate natural ecosystems, achieving the 2015 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Thanks to its ability of connecting different fields and establishing new relationships between social trends, lifestyles, scientific developments, technological tools and biological research, design can help 'materializing' “possible and desirable futures, making them tangible through design thinking” (Bertola, 2022). This paper explains the approaches and methods of designing strategies for the sustainable transition in tourism field presenting two research projects, developed in different geographical contexts, prototyping systems of spaces for hospitality. The first is the regenerative floating resort Hostraka, which is the winning project of the international Sustainable Hospitality Challenge 2023 competition. Hostraka is a design-led concept for a floating resort that combines both the regeneration of aquatic ecosystems by filtering microplastics, and the education and engagement of guests to promote a new culture of sustainability. It is an innovative model for cultural experiences in the hospitality industry, while reducing the impact of hospitality spaces on natural ecosystems. The second is the research on sustainable interior design strategies applied to hotel spaces. The research focuses on the transformation of an existing hotel room into a regenerated space. This allowed the application of design for sustainability strategies to the suite for MODE, a sustainable hotel in Rimini, Italy. In particular, the project team (F. Scullica, C. Pagni, E. Elgani, C. Borgonovo, F. Salmaso) has focused on the processes of selecting sustainable materials for the FF&E (furniture, fixture, finishes & equipment design) and on the reuse of furniture and equipment, in order to create a prototype of a sustainable room able to explain an innovative design process and to propose to guests new responsible approaches to interiors. In the short to medium term, these room prototypes will suggest new approaches to tourism and solutions for responsible tourism. These two case studies explore the role of design in building a more sustainable future.