By Donatella Cinelli Colombini, winedestination, Casato Prime Donne Montalcino, Fattoria del Colle Trequanda

When I first went to the UK, I bought a kilt that I wore for years. I was 17, and in Italy, especially in Siena, it wasn’t possible to buy anything similar. There were pleated skirts with tartan patterns, but not in the same wool and not with such beautiful designs.

Over the next 50 years, the industrial production of clothing, food, and originally handcrafted objects, as well as globalization, led to a progressive diffusion of “ethnic products” in world markets. Kilts could also be purchased in Tuscany and later online, at prices much cheaper than my first tartan skirt. But the quality was no longer the same, nor was the charm of an authentic object purchased in the production area.

Once upon a time, the greatest appeal of travel was the possibility of immersing oneself in a reality different from one’s own, where the sights, lifestyle, sounds, flavours, and smells allowed one to discover a civilization whose artistic monuments were the jewels of its crown.

HOW GLOBALIZATION AND OVERTOURISM HAVE KILLED LOCAL PRODUCTS

Today, overtourism, hit-and-run shopping, the transformation of destinations, encrusted with shops selling fake souvenirs, and living like tourists instead of residents… has led to an erosion of local identity.…

L'articolo THE VALUE OF “ONLY THERE” IN TOURISM sembra essere il primo su Cinelli Colombini.