10/07/2026 –, Aula accademica
The availability and quality of geospatial data are key enabling factors for sustainable tourism policies, especially in rural and inner areas where datasets are often incomplete, outdated, or fragmented. These limitations affect both policy-making processes and the accessibility of territorial resources.
In this framework, the Pilot Action “Map&Go”, launched by an interdisciplinary group of the Politecnico di Torino (Systemic Design, Real Estate Appraisal and Project Evaluation, and Geomatics), focuses on defining collaboration for open geospatial datasets through participatory approaches, adopting consolidated tools and methods of OpenStreetMap (OSM). The Action is part of the Interreg Europe SYSTOUR project (https://www.interregeurope.eu/systour), aiming to improve the accessibility and usability of tourism-related data to support regional policy instruments.
Building on the results of the SYSTOUR co-design process, “Map&Go” enriches the SYSTOUR GIS for complexity maps by enhancing existing regional geospatial datasets and maps by integrating new information and objects related to outdoor facilities, accessibility, and mobility infrastructures, as well as cultural, gastronomic, and other place-based tourism experiences. This supports regional policy implementation processes and contributes to the development of sustainable tourism solutions, in line with the emerging European Tourism Data Space. It adopts a capacity-building approach based on a “training of trainers” model. Two webinars (about online and onsite tools topics) and an in-person mapping party in Turin (at the Valentino Castle, hosting the Department of Architecture and Design) were organised to transfer knowledge on OSM data structures, different editing tools/apps (such as Id, OsmAnd, FieldPapaer, Map/StreetComplete, Mappillary, …) and mapping pipelines, as well as to define shared data models for tourism-related information.
After this, participatory mapping activities are being implemented across the involved partner regions (in three different countries across Europe: Finland, France, and Italy), including field mapping parties and remote mapathons. These activities involve local stakeholders and OSM communities in the acquisition, validation, and publication of geospatial data, ensuring both data quality and local relevance. The collected data will support the data-driven design of sustainable tourism solutions, with a focus on ‘tourism for all’, slow mobility, accessibility, and the valorisation of local resources. The final phase will consist of joint field visits involving all partners, aimed at testing the mapped experiences and itineraries and evaluating them according to economic feasibility criteria.
This approach is particularly relevant in rural areas, where spatial knowledge is often not formalised in existing datasets. Participatory mapping enables the transformation of this knowledge into structured, open data, while fostering local capacity building and engagement.
The pilot thus provides a transferable methodology that combines collaborative mapping, open-source tools, and capacity-building to address the lack of data, to support evidence-based policies and define sustainable tourism solutions in rural contexts.
