Vecchie e nuove prospettive di sviluppo del turismo in Italia (Old and new prospects for the development of tourism in Italy)

Despite the topic of attractiveness of tourist destinations is at the centre of the International economic debate, there are still many areas showing important gap among potentials and performances and in most cases literature doesn't offer a suitable measure and strategic solutions for this problem. This paper aims at investigating the drivers at the basis of the attractiveness of a tourist destination and at supplying a measure of the same, in addition to the elaboration of suitable developing strategies. In order to reach these objectives a very detailed review of literature on tourist attractiveness and sustainability and main sources of it is offered. In a second time, throughout a quantitative methodology, an index of tourist attractiveness is created, suitably integrated and adapted to the area under investigation. Results show how the Mezzogiorno, characterized by a strong specialization on tourist product-concentrated on the coast and in summer months, is not able to diversify its offer. The main limit of this research consists in the application of the index to a single destination (the Italian Mezzogiorno). With some changes, the study could be applied in the future to other European areas (in particular to the benchmark ones) for comparative purposes.