Ranking Apulian ecomuseums using qualitative indicators of sustainability: social, economic and environmental

Ecomuseums promote responsible tourism practices and foster a sustainable development for the community and the territory. In this context, the present paper assesses the influence of the fifteen officially recognized ecomuseums in the Apulia region (southern Italy), on the socioeconomic development of its territory. For this purpose, we performed a specific survey based on the 3 components of the sustainability concept: social, economic, and environmental. The results depicted that Apulian ecomuseums seemed to be more active in the social component, and the “Porto Museum of Tricase'' would be categorized as a reference in ecomuseology. Furthermore, the findings revealed that the: (i) continuous improvement of digitalisation, (ii) development of a strategic governance between local authorities and ecomuseums, and (iii) strengthens of the local network should be addressed by the private and public decision-makers to better enhance the performance of the studied ecomusems.