Digital platforms for community-led tourism: Co-designing liveable rural communities in Marginal territories

This paper investigates how digital infrastructure can support livability in rural and marginal territories, extending livability frameworks traditionally developed for urban contexts. Drawing on a theoretical analysis that contrasts urban and rural livability mechanisms, the study identifies three distinctive elements of rural livability: seasonal responsiveness and temporal adaptation, proximity-based social architecture and mutual support systems, and territorial knowledge integration and place-based problem-solving. These elements operate through dispersed networks, community-scale governance, and direct interpersonal relationships, rather than through the concentration, specialization, and institutional coordination characteristic of urban settings. The research employs a participatory co-design methodology based on Design Sprint workshops involving eight community cooperatives in the Abruzzo region (Italy), a paradigmatic case of territorial marginality marked by demographic decline and spatial fragmentation. The co-design process resulted in AbiTerrò, a digital platform prototype for community-based tourism that embeds the three identified rural livability elements into its architecture: seasonal filtering of activities aligned with ecological cycles, proximity services for mutual aid coordination, and territorial knowledge transmission through experience diaries, activity profiles, and community-controlled content curation. A key design principle is the absence of a rigid distinction between tourists and inhabitants, fostering gradual integration of visitors into the territorial community. The findings suggest that community-controlled digital platforms can enhance rural livability when designed to extend existing territorial practices rather than impose urban-derived organizational logics, and highlight implications for rural development policy regarding the tension between digital standardization and place-based development needs.