Page 53 - World Heritage and Tourism Innovation

An Intangible Cultural Heritage Asset

as a Driver for the Development of Tourism:

Violin Making in Cremona, Italy

Raffaela Gabriella Rizzo
Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore di Milano, Italy
RaffaelaGabriella.Rizzo@unicatt.it

In 2012, “Traditional Violin Craftsmanship in Cremona” was included in the UNES-
CO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. In the city,
the link between the urban context and artistic craftsmanship is seen most clearly in
the Cultural District of Violin Making, characterised by the so-called “atelier effect”.
This high concentration of professionals in the field has led to the presence of sever-
al actors that play a role in the handing down and dissemination of this art: the “An-
tonio Stradivari” Cremona Consortium of Violin Makers, the Italian Violin Making
Association, the Fondazione Museo del Violino Antonio Stradivari, the UNESCO
office of the Cremona Municipality. The Safeguard Plan for traditional violin crafts-
manship in Cremona and its application in the UNESCO Creative Cities network
are now in progress. This study intends both to understand how the violin-making
supply chain moves between traditional and innovative aspects and to analyse how
its dense cluster of institutions and professionals (about 150) could enhance musical
tourism based on the desire of tourists to get in touch with the creativity of the arti-
sanal manufacture of musical instruments. The aim is to highlight how to promote
this niche of cultural tourism in this period of significant changes resulting from
technology implementation. Furthermore, it is necessary to understand how this
aspect integrates with the other specificities of the area (e.g., the monumental ones)
to convey and strengthen its image. The research was carried out through qualitative
and semi-structured interviews.
Keywords: Cremona, violin making, territorial identity, intangible heritage, cultur-
al tourism, music tourism.
https://doi.org/10.26493/978-961-293-417-0.49-64

Introduction 2004). Between 2008 and 2021, this led to the inclusion
This research takes its cue from UNESCO’s concept of in the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural
intangible heritage, in line with the “Convention for Heritage of Humanity of 629 elements in 139 countries
the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage” (UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage, n.d.-a). In the
(Blake & Lixinski, 2020; UNESCO, 2020; Olalere, 2019; last twenty years, intense debate has arisen regarding
Tudorache, 2016), approved in 2003 and then ratified the conception of intangible heritage and its impli-
in various countries; this had a long gestation be- cations (Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, 2004; Bouchenaki;
fore being disseminated in its current form (Aikawa, 2007; Bindi, 2013; Paratore, 2013; Morbidelli, 2014;

Proceedings of the 7th UNESCO UNITWIN Conference | 49