A newly published article by Greg Richards, From the centre to the periphery: intangible cultural heritage in rural areas, brings timely attention to a subject that is central to the CROCUS vision: the growing importance of living heritage in shaping the future of rural and remote destinations. The article has just been published in the Journal of Tourism and Cultural Change and is now available online.

For many years, cultural tourism was often associated mainly with cities, monuments, museums, and major heritage attractions. Yet across Europe and beyond, a different reality has been steadily gaining visibility. In rural areas, culture is often not concentrated in iconic buildings or famous collections, but in practices, memories, skills, festivities, stories, foodways, and everyday forms of knowledge passed from one generation to the next. The article highlights how this intangible cultural heritage is increasingly recognised as a key asset for places that may have fewer “monumental” resources but possess a rich and distinctive cultural identity.

This is especially relevant for rural and remote territories seeking new, sustainable ways to attract visitors without losing their character. Intangible heritage can make tourism more human, more participatory, and more rooted in place. It can be experienced through local gastronomy, seasonal rituals, oral traditions, craftsmanship, music, agricultural practices, and community events. These are not simply attractions to be consumed; they are living expressions of identity and belonging. When approached with care, they can help generate tourism experiences that are meaningful both for visitors and for residents.

At the same time, the article does not romanticise the countryside. It underlines that the growing attention to intangible heritage also raises important questions. Who decides how heritage is presented? How can communities remain at the centre of the process? How can local traditions be shared without being oversimplified or commercialised? And how can governance models support long-term sustainability rather than short-term visibility? These are crucial questions for anyone working on tourism development in peripheral areas. The review identifies important research gaps around governance and around the relationship between tangible and intangible heritage resources.

These reflections resonate strongly with the work developed through CROCUS. The project is grounded in the idea that cultural and creative tourism in rural and remote areas should not be based on copying urban models, but on recognising the specific strengths of each territory. CROCUS has already highlighted the growing importance of intangible cultural heritage in the academic and policy debate on rural tourism, as well as the central role of gastronomy, events, and place-based cultural experiences in making rural areas more attractive and resilient.

Within the broader CROCUS perspective, intangible heritage is not seen as something static or nostalgic. It is a living resource that can inspire innovation, entrepreneurship, collaboration, and new forms of storytelling. Rural areas are not “peripheries” in a negative sense; they can become laboratories for more inclusive, creative, and community-based models of tourism. This shift in perspective is one of the most interesting messages emerging from recent research, and it helps explain why the debate around rural cultural tourism is becoming increasingly dynamic.

For stakeholders, researchers, and practitioners involved in the future of rural and remote destinations, this new article offers an important contribution. It invites us to look beyond the traditional hierarchy that placed culture at the centre and the countryside at the margins. Instead, it suggests that some of the most promising ideas for the future of tourism may emerge precisely from those places where culture is lived daily, collectively, and often quietly: in the rural communities that continue to preserve and reinvent their heritage.

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14766825.2026.2646565#d1e688