A Description Model for Regeneration through Urban Tourism in Rural Towns with Underused Historic Real Estate

This paper deals with the construction of a description model that will be helpful for an actual decision aiding situation posed by the urban planner for tourism development of rural towns in Sicilian hinterland areas. The decision problem concerns the town of Cianciana, which in recent years has become the protagonist of a particular international tourism phenomenon. We propose a multi-criteria evaluation framework for the rehabilitation of the historic town centre through tourism development. The description problem model that is presented here is focused on aiding decision makers to identify the best usage strategy of under-utilized historic real estate for tourist accommodation. Although the evaluation framework has been inspired by the particular case of Cianciana, it would fit well for evaluations undertaken in analogue circumstances.