Turistica - Italian Journal of Tourism

Measuring Italian art cities tourism: a proposal of indicators

Giuseppe Avena, Romana Gargano — Mon, 05 Feb 2024 00:00:00 +0100

In Italy, art cities have traditionally served as “magnets” for cultural tourism, significantly contributing to the country’s economic vitality. Many historic city centers are not simply “boxes” of artworks but are veritable open-air museums. In recent years, the profile of cultural and experiential visitors has increasingly oriented towards experiences that can be enjoyed individually or with family. While the traditional tourism system continues to offer conventional tourist products, it is also evolving to meet the growing demand for unique and unforgettable experiences. This represents new challenges for destination areas that seek to improve services and create attractions that can meet this emerging new audience. The objective of this work is to propose a composite indicator that measures the tourism potential of these art cities, drawing upon existing tourism indexes in the literature and equitable and sustainable well-being (BES) indicators, such as the domains of “landscape and cultural heritage” and “environment”. The decision to employ these indicators stems from their considerable relevance in a country like Italy, as well as the specific focus of our study. Additionally, we developed a ranking of Italian art cities, enabling us to determine their relative levels of attractiveness. To achieve this, a panel of Italian provincial capitals was selected, each with at least one museum and a UNESCO site. The composite indicator developed, which also considers social and environmental perspectives, represents an alternative quantitative approach to assessing the attractiveness of art cities. The underlying principle is that, in the ever-evolving scene of cultural tourism, beyond the indispensable role played by artistic and cultural heritage, the impact of scenic landscapes on people's quality of life and its connection to individual well-being plays a crucial role. This indicator could provide territorial planning professionals with statistical tools capable of identifying the strengths and weaknesses of the tourism offer of those cities that set themselves the goal of being a privileged place of artistic tourist attraction. The proposed composite indicator should make it possible to comprehend whether and how to develop paths to enhance the entire artistic heritage, while also considering the well-being of visitors.

Technology-Driven Innovation in Cultural Heritage: A Museum Experience Perspective

Alessio Di Leo — Tue, 13 Feb 2024 00:00:00 +0100

This study explores the evolving impact of technology on cultural heritage encounters, specifically within museum settings. It introduces a comprehensive conceptual framework that encompasses various aspects of the museum experience influenced by technology and assesses its effects on visitor satisfaction and loyalty intentions. Through an empirical investigation involving 300 individuals visiting archaeological sites in Rome (Italy), including both permanent and temporary exhibitions with varying levels of technological integration, this research employs a self-administered questionnaire to validate its hypotheses. The results underscore the significance of technology in shaping diverse facets of the visitor experience, such as education-entertainment fusion, engagement, and ambience, with substantial implications for enhancing customer satisfaction and fostering visitor loyalty. This research adopts a mixed-methods approach to investigate the evolving role of technology in cultural heritage encounters within museums. In a first phase, a comprehensive conceptual model that captures various dimensions of the museum experience influenced by technology was designed. Subsequently, data was collected from a purposive sample of 300 individuals visiting archaeological sites in Rome, encompassing both permanent and temporary exhibitions. This sample is intentionally diverse in terms of technology integration, allowing for a nuanced analysis. Data is gathered through the administration of a self-administered questionnaire designed to empirically test the hypotheses formulated in the conceptual model. Statistical analyses, including regression analysis and structural equation modeling, are employed to assess the impact of technology on visitor satisfaction and loyalty intentions. This research contributes to the field by introducing a comprehensive conceptual framework that holistically examines the multifaceted influence of technology on the museum experience, including dimensions such as edutainment, engagement, and ambience. Furthermore, it provides empirical evidence of these effects through a diverse sample of museum visitors. This study offers valuable insights into the evolving role of technology in cultural heritage contexts, filling a gap in the existing literature and providing actionable guidance for cultural institutions seeking to enhance visitor engagement and loyalty. The findings of this research hold practical significance for cultural institutions, particularly museums, aiming to leverage technology to enrich visitor experiences. By understanding how technology influences dimensions such as edutainment, engagement, and ambience, museums can strategically integrate technology to enhance customer satisfaction and foster visitor loyalty. This research encourages museums to adopt innovative technological solutions that cater to diverse visitor preferences, ultimately ensuring a more immersive and satisfying cultural heritage encounter.

Sustainable Tourism Intentions: Extending the Theory of Planned Behavior.

Simone Luongo, Eleonora Napolano, Kanwal Gul — Wed, 14 Feb 2024 00:00:00 +0100

In recent years, there has been a notable shift in people's attitudes towards the environment, with an increasing emphasis on seeking out sustainable and eco-friendly destinations for their travel experiences. This evolving mindset has given rise to the pressing need for destinations to position themselves as a sustainable option. As the demand for services that prioritize sustainability continues to rise, the concept of a sustainable destination image has emerged as a pivotal marketing strategy to attract environmentally conscious tourists. This study employs the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) to delve into tourists' intentions toward sustainable tourism. investigate the sustainable intentions of tourists, a quantitative study has been conducted in Naples (Italy) with a sample size of 503 participants, including both Italian and foreign tourists. The SmartPLS tool was used to evaluate the measurement and structural models using the partial least squares structural equation modelling method (PLS-SEM). After evaluating the model, the research hypotheses are tested to measure the influence of Sustainable Tourism Intentions. This research makes a significant contribution to the Theory of Planned Behavior by introducing and integrating two innovative constructs: Environmental Awareness (EA) and Sustainable Destination Image (SDI). By incorporating these elements, this research sheds light on these factors' critical role in shaping sustainable tourism intentions. The study explores the relationship between sustainable tourism and tourist behaviors, advocating for a collaborative approach between governments and service providers to promote sustainability, with destination image playing a pivotal role in shaping tourist behavior. Governments can drive positive change through regulations and incentives for eco-friendly practices. Prioritizing a sustainable destination image is essential for attracting environmentally conscious tourists, who increasingly seek eco-friendly destinations.

Mapping the Tourism Industry: Insights and Implications

Andrea Guizzardi, Michele Costa — Tue, 27 Feb 2024 00:00:00 +0100

This research offers a holistic view of the tourism industry by addressing data scarcity and classification complexities. Central to this framework is the ATECO 2007 classification, spotlighting core sectors like: accommodation, food and beverage services, travel agencies but also agritourism that are often, wrongly, categorized under the agricultural sector. Methodologically, the study consolidates data from diverse sources and collaborates with regional entities to rectify classification discrepancies and fill informational gaps. We propose effective solutions, introducing imputation methods able to rectify cases where data on employed individuals is absent for specific local units. By applying our integration and imputation procedure to the provinces of Emilia-Romagna, we obtain a more accurate description of the tourism industry that better aligns with the theoretical framework of a sector at the intersection of core and extra-core sectors. The higher employment and the different spatial distribution we found may serves as a foundation for informed policy decisions and targeted policy formulation to promote economic growth, job creation, and sustainable tourism practices.

Digital tourism and sustainable development of rural and inland areas with food and wine tourism: the role of web portals

Guido Migliaccio, Eng. Carmine Lausi, Eng. Mariano Baldi — Wed, 06 Mar 2024 00:00:00 +0100

Rural and inland areas in Italy cover a large area. They are mainly agricultural and underdeveloped, which generates social hardship and depopulation. The study focuses on ICT as a possible tool for the development of wine and food tourism especially in these areas. After outlining an exhaustive bibliographical framework and the characteristics of the socio-economic context, it is analyzed and evaluated the innovative web portal "lacucinacampana.it", which proposes integrated information on the typical food of Campania, Italian region characterized by conspicuous tourist flows towards renowned destinations that could partially deviate towards less frequented destinations. The portal, realized by an innovative start-up, presents integrated content in 11 languages related to food products and their suppliers, local dishes with the restaurateurs offering them, associated places with their tourist attractions, itineraries, food and wine experiences, etc. The study shows that the examined web portal satisfies the needs of food and wine tourists, with a model that can be reproduced on a national and international scale, highlighting the fundamental role that ICT technologies can play in increasing food and wine tourism, especially in rural and inland areas. The study complements the modest literature on web portals aimed at tourism development, providing useful considerations and concrete proposals. The portal promotes the sale of typical food products and food and wine tourism, increasing the incomes of agri-food suppliers and registered restaurateurs. Overall, it promotes the economic development of the areas concerned, complementing the other initiatives of public institutions and trade associations. This study may also stimulate further useful analyses to address development issues in rural and inland areas.

What skills in 21st-century tourism? Empirical evidence from online job advertisements

Laura Grassini, Adham Kahlawi, Lucia Varra — Tue, 19 Mar 2024 00:00:00 +0100

This paper aims to understand what skills are required in jobs in the tourism sector, looking from a particular perspective: that of online job advertisements, which, although not very present in the sector, constitute a valuable source for making reflections on the current use of the tool among operators, the professional figures required, the transversal skills considered most necessary. Furthermore, the study provides a comparison between online job ad data and some statistical sources concerning occupations and skills in tourism. A descriptive and explorative analysis of online job ads is performed to meet the paper's objectives. The study is carried out on a dataset produced by Lightcast^TM and reporting information on online job advertisements for Italy in 2022. This contribution represents one of the few works that analyse the tourism job market through online job advertisements, with a critical view of the information content of those data sources compared to frameworks and perspectives adopted in the academic literature. Despite the limitations deriving from the fact that tourism is not well represented in online job ads, the results provide helpful reflections on the skills demanded in the sector and their development. There is confirmation that this could help with corporate management choices, education, the development of the job market, and the competitiveness of destinations. At the same time, for these data to provide information consistent with theories and conceptual frameworks specific to human resources research, it is necessary to trace them back to classifications and taxonomies consolidated in the literature.