ICTs and Smart Territories. The Knowledge and Use of the UNESCO Heritage by Using the QR Codes System

The heritage sites included on the World Heritage List are important and highly qualified resources for the territories and communities in which they lie. UNESCO heritage should be recognised as representing the beautiful and the best of its territory, and as being a “useful” resource, in that it is capable of increasing the territories’ economic, social, and cultural values. To this end, in a period characterised by deep recession and by crisis in the markets, new forms of exploitation of the heritage must be put in place. In the context of “smart management” of UNESCO heritage, new tools have been utilised, such as ICTs. In relation to this, this study proposes an extension of the use of the QR Code as a support to communication, integrated enhancement, and the coming to fruition of the territorial resources of the UNESCO site of “The Late Baroque Towns of Val di Noto”.