Exploring War Cemeteries as Spaces of Coexistence: Tourism, Heritage and Biodiversity in a Diversified Context

This chapter highlights the dynamic interplay between tourism and heritage dimensions, showing how cemeteries and graves contribute to the development of new forms of tourism (e.g. roots tourism that connects different generations). Employing a qualitative methodology, the study captures diverse perspectives through site visits, fieldnotes, photographs, visitor reactions, online observations and testimonials. Semi-structured interviews with visitors provided further insights facilitating a qualitative analysis. A case study of a war cemetery (Agira Canadian War Cemetery), in Sicily, Italy, underscores the role of these spaces in fostering historical and social aspects, as well as biodiversity, and countering urban floristic homogenization. The findings reveal war cemeteries as compelling examples of multi-religious spaces that integrate the deceased, and emphasize their relevance as common spaces for coexistence and the memory of historical facts. This study enriches our understanding of the intersections between cemeteries, different kinds of tourism and heritage while addressing the challenges and opportunities they face in an ever-changing world.