Summary: | The POLARIS project focuses on peripheral areas with very few populations (Patagonia, Siberia, Lapland), where the extensive rearing of sheep or reindeer coexists with extractive activities that have transformed traditional ways of life and sometimes represent a threat to the environment . The conservation of natural and cultural heritage is a challenge for local communities in search of an alternative way of development, in the face of the impacts of global warming and globalization that manifest themselves in a sometimes invasive way under these extreme latitudes. The tourist valorization of these patrimonies is an option that needs a territorial anchorage of the actors with the creation of a space of goods and services based on formal or informal agreements, professional groupings, mutual aid and concerted initiatives to consolidate a capacity for innovation and adaptation to the market. This territorial anchoring results from a collective mobilization around specific resources whose valorization depends on a social construction inherent to each territory. However, there are different ways to achieve this organization: some think that it goes through the constitution of a centralized structure with a mixed syndicate, a tourism office and a strong municipal team (Hazebroucq, 1999), while others privilege the creation of networks between the different actors involved (Peyrache-Gadeau, 2004). Beyond these differences, it is necessary to rely on a territorial culture that reflects the local identity, emphasizing the importance of relations between public and private actors for the development of tourism services. This territorial culture is a key element in the trajectories of sustainable development. It constitutes a social capital and a resource for development, whose activation requires institutions capable of facilitating the interconnection of the multiple networks (social, economic, communication .) of tourism, articulating supply with demand and trying to limit the leakage coefficient from destinations to ...
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