Citation: Deri, M.G.; Chiti, L.; Ciuffoletti, A. A Sustainable Approach to Tourist Signage on Heritage Trails. Sustainability 2023, 15, 16251. https://doi.org/10.3390/ su152316251 Academic Editor: Ian Patterson Received: 18 October 2023 Revised: 17 November 2023 Accepted: 20 November 2023 Published: 23 November 2023 Copyright: © 2023 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/). sustainability Article A Sustainable Approach to Tourist Signage on Heritage Trails Maria Grazia Deri 1 , Letizia Chiti 2 and Augusto Ciuffoletti 3, * ,† 1 Department of Political Science, University of Pisa, 56126 Pisa, Italy; mariagrazia.deri@sp.unipi.it 2 Department of Civilizations and Forms of Knowledge, University of Pisa, 56126 Pisa, Italy; letizia.chiti@cfs.unipi.it 3 Department of Computer Science, University of Pisa, 56126 Pisa, Italy * Correspondence: augusto.ciuffoletti@unipi.it † Retired. Abstract: Understanding the cultural aspects of an area rich in heritage is crucial for building a lasting educational experience from an excursion. Many articles in the literature explore the use of sophisticated technologies to achieve such a goal. Tourism proposals for inland areas are significant because the presence of human artifacts and signage can harm the experience and create pollutants. Through a holistic methodology and analysis, this paper examines the signage for an area rich in cultural and natural assets: this study encompasses history, touristic vocation, and the environmental context. According to the analysis, slow, community-involved tourism is the preferred destination, and the signage solution must meet strict sustainability requirements in the social, economic, and environmental realms. After applying the appropriate governance guidelines, QR code technology was selected for a thoroughly documented experimental deployment. Keywords: inland areas; digital sustainability; slow tourism; destination governance; community- involved tourism; cultural heritage; holistic approach; QR code 1. Introduction Although an official decision is pending, there is a widely agreed proposal for the naming of the time in which we are living as the Anthropocene. Behind this proposal is the recognition that humans have the potential to significantly alter, on a global scale, the environment in which they live. The problem with the above fact is that we humans are not able to understand the long- term consequences of deploying such a potential, nor even to keep it under control. Even worse, such capacities are often used with the aim of short-term local effects, ignoring long- term global ones, with the risk of long-term global deterioration. This attitude pervades all activities, starting with the most basic ones such as the supply of food and homes, and is often influenced by economic profit. Leisure and cultural activities, like tourism, bring profit to niche businesses. This creates a reinforcing effect that follows the negative dynamics seen above: an activity that is neutral in itself (e.g., skiing)can have a significant impact due to induced effects (lifts) that strengthen the success of the activity (easier to practice) bringing more investment and impact. Unlike beneficial effects, which are usually localized, the negative impacts have a very broad spectrum that include environmental, social, and economic sectors, as discussed by Patthey in [1], relating to outdoor winter sports. To manage this situation, international agencies promote the keyword “sustainability” as a guideline for the conservation of our habitat. Jeffry Ramsey et al. [2] consider the concept behind this word as “vague and disputed but not meaningless” and that it cannot be used without a concrete framework, especially in a normative context. To solve the problem of measuring sustainability, Tom Kuhlman et al. [3] pointed out an inherent conceptual tension between growth and stability. This tension has been attenuated by Sustainability 2023, 15, 16251. https://doi.org/10.3390/su152316251 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/sustainability