SUSTAINABLE TOURISM BRANDING AND CULTURAL HERITAGE: SPORTS EVENT – OVIDIO RUNNING EUROPE

To what extent can cultural heritage be leveraged to generate economic and social wealth for the territory in which it is located? How can a tourism destination transform cultural heritage into a set of resources to address both destination branding and sustainability issues and thus safeguard heritage conservation and authenticity? Is the reason and the fundamental purpose for which there are initiatives such as Ovidio Running,cross country in Italy and in other countries of Europe. The demand for research outlines the value of cultural heritage and sporting events to make an amplifier of sustainability. The United Nations Global Compact’s Sustainable Development Goal 2030 Sustainable Development Goals systematize the evidence on concepts, policies and strategies, to provide an interpretative synthesis that illuminates the factors considered critical by researchers for the sustainable integration of heritage and tourism. To achieve the purpose of understanding sustainable tourism in this case. The theme of sustainability combined with integrated planning in a network of sustainable tourism, with sport care, deepened a theme whose approach always focuses on cultural heritage. This document aims to trace the impact of a major event such as Ovidio Running and lay the foundations for future improvement. The goal is not only to report data but also to bring perspectives, stories, and testimonies from the event's stakeholders, whose involvement is fundamental to designing a link. We would like to define a business model in which 5 impact areas of the event relevant to sustainability are considered relevant: Culture Heritage, Well-being, Circularity, Happiness and health, and Education and involvement (Agenda 2030). For this, a questionnaire was generated with questions covering the following dimensions. This phase is based on the collection of qualitative data and involves all key areas and functions of organizations: suppliers, internal organizations, local stakeholders, and partners. The methodological approach allows to collection of information through interviews, public information, and anonymous surveys, and results are represented within a model that allows to identification of virtuous practices and areas of improvement and define concrete actions to start a path of progressive improvement. All this referred to the Ovidio Running sports event. The category "sustainability of tourism" ( similarly mentioned in the text as "sustainable tourism") emerges as a broad theme, characterized by a diversity of approaches and research methodologies used (Bramwell, B., & Lane, B. ,2005) important for the perception of the cultural component as a competitive advantage. This is the study to analyze multiple dimensions: physical, social, economic, cultural, and environmental. The study enhances the value of existing literature on sustainable marketing by providing information on how it is applied in the sports events sector.