Abstract
The drafting of the bill presented to the House of Representatives in October 2009 and the will to establish a commission within the Ministry of Tourism for the development of ecomuseums have fostered a period of debate on the relationship between ecomuseum systems and the touristic promotion of the territory. This is certainly not to invite mass tourism, but the tourism that is respectful to cultural heritage and that the eco- museums, with their participatory nature and their attention to the diffuse valorisation of the local landscape and identity, can adequately support. Tourism, seen as cultural exchange, is a lever for local development, able to promote the activation of resources in territorial management and to generate new economies with a strong cultural component, among which the eco-museum has an innovative potential. In this perspective, the economical aim is not only the value-added integration of eco-museums and tourism, but it also regards building cultural and socio-economic relationships, with internal and external entities to the local system, eliminating the implicit dangers of becoming self-referential and obsolete.
