Destination Play: A Phigital Model for Sustainable Tourism Development in Peripheral Areas

Abstract

Peripheral metropolitan areas across Europe face a structural contradiction: while celebrated destinations suffer from unsustainable overtourism, adjacent territories rich in stratified cultural heritage remain marginalized from mainstream tourism circuits. This fracture is compounded by administrative fragmentation that impoverishes endogenous development capacity. "Destination Play" is a research initiative that addresses this complexity by proposing an innovative and sustainable model for economic and social valorisation of cultural assets in peripheral areas. The core innovation rests on a generative paradigm that transforms tourists from passive consumers into co-creators of territorial meaning. The proposal weaves together four methodological axes that converge in a phygital Hub platform. A sophisticated profiling system leveraging generative artificial intelligence personalizes tourism experiences, adapting dynamically to visitor preferences and behavioural patterns. Simultaneously, contextualized gamification metamorphoses cultural sites and practices into ludic worlds that stimulate deep engagement among both tourists and residents alike. Equally decisive is the adoption of participatory design, wherein local communities, public administrations, and economic operators co-craft tourism offerings through structured collaborative processes. A digital assistant powered by conversational artificial intelligence—operating multilingually and multimodally—ensures accessibility and inclusion, framing each visit as a co-authored narrative. Impact measurement employs a hybrid BES/RETS framework that interlaces indicators of equitable and sustainable well-being with resident empowerment scales, capturing not merely economic metrics but also territorial identity regeneration and social cohesion. The research mobilizes qualitative and quantitative methodologies spanning artificial intelligence research, participatory design workshops, co-creation laboratories, and longitudinal community well-being assessments. The expected outcomes include industrialization roadmaps, replicable territorial impact evaluation methodologies, scalable open-source architectures, and co-created narrative datasets. The ultimate ambition is a platform prototype demonstrating how peripheral metropolitan regions can achieve equitable development through participatory, sustainable cultural tourism ecosystems.