Sviluppo sostenibile, attrattività e competitività dei sistemi territoriali locali: un approccio strategico.

The present study is based on the application of a strategic planning model for place marketing which aims to implement a process of sustainable development of a territory, considering local territorial systems (LTSs) as unit of analysis. A LTS is a sub-regional area, composed of one or more municipalities, characterized by similar social, economic, and spatial attributes that, combined together, form the basis of the specific offer of a territory. The approach was applied in four LTSs located in the Province of Lecce, in South Italy, through the study of their indicators of sustainable development, the attractiveness of the competitive environment and their competitiveness, in two successive moments. The strategic positioning of these aforementioned LSTs was obtained, which allows to define, by means of the gap analysis, the strategic needs of these LTSs, and to determine their different development strategies.