Salento's tourism monoculture and the Xylella disaster

The article critically examines the impact of tourism on Salento, a region in Puglia, Italy, arguing that the industry has become a monoculture that ignores the devastating effects of the Xylella bacterium. Xylella has infected over 21 million olive trees across 8,000 square kilometers (40% of Puglia), leading to a loss of landscape, jobs, and olive mills sold to Greece, Morocco, and Tunisia. Despite this, tourism continues to be promoted, with local authorities granting honorary citizenships to fashion designers like Maria Grazia Chiuri as a distraction. The tourism boom began in the mid-1990s with beach and olive grove dance parties, fueled by the Sud Sound System's Tarantamuffin music and the Notte della Taranta festival. The author, Marco Petroni, calls for a new political, economic, and social imagination to break the tourism monoculture.