“Alagna Walser Green Paradise” Research: Quality of Life as a Topic to Enhance a Mountain Tourist Destination

This contribution focuses on the construction of a model of the quality of life within the research project “Alagna Walser Green Paradise” (AWGP), developed with the Municipality of Alagna Valsesia and the Piedmont Region. Quality of life was measured through GDP for decades but, in the course of time, other perspectives have been considered, such as health, education, employment, leisure, social relations, security, environment, landscape, and cultural heritage. Well-being measurement frameworks are applied at international and national levels but unlikely at rural levels. AWGP research activities define an experimental method to identify, together with local stakeholders, a set of indicators to measure the rural quality of life. The suggested set considers the context: Alagna Valsesia is a mountain rural tourist destination. The purpose is to collect useful information that allows local stakeholders to carry out activities of monitoring and improvement. Positive results at the end of this model test would allow reiteration of the same set of indicators in other rural areas.