Tourism Destination Competitiveness in Italy: A Stakeholders’ Perspective

ABSTRACT

The paper aims to evaluate the competitiveness of one of the world’s leading tourism countries from a stakeholders’ perspective. A survey questionnaire has been submitted to relevant tourism stakeholders from 370 outstanding Italian destinations. The results show that Italy is more competitive in its natural and cultural resources, but less competitive in tourism policy and planning, and in destination management. The findings also suggest that small destinations, hinterland destinations, and destinations in the under developed southern part of the country have high tourism potential. The research reveals areas where improvements should be made to boost tourism competitiveness in Italy.

KEYWORDS:

• Destination competitiveness
• stakeholders’ perspective
• tourism policy, planning, and development
• destination management
• Italy

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Italy boasts 8962 km of coastline (Istat, 2016a), 19.1% of the Italian surface is covered with national parks (covering an area of 14,651 square km), with a total amount of 57,774 square km (3765 municipalities) covered by Natura 2000 sites, with 27 protected marine areas (Ministry for Environment, Land and Sea Protection of Italy, 2014). The historical heritage is made of thousands of historic sites, old villages and towns, historical churches, 282 archaeological parks, and 536 monumental complexes (Istat, 2016b). It counts on 4158 museums and galleries (1.7 museums every 100 square km, about one museum every 12 thousand inhabitants); one-third of Italian municipalities hosts at least one museum or similar institution. In 2017, the threshold of 50 million visitors was exceeded in public cultural and historic sites (+10% compared to 2016), and the visits have grown by a further 5% in 2018, reaching the record number of 55 million visitors (Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities, 2019).

2 According to the most influential gastronomic guide (Michelin Guide, 2019), Italy is the second country worldwide in terms of the number of Michelin-starred restaurants (374), with 10 “three-star Michelin restaurants” (the highest award) over 49 restaurants worldwide. Italy is also one of the best countries in the world for wine lovers: there are 400 DOC wines (controlled designation of origin) and 118 IGP wines (protected geographical indication) (Ministry of Agricultural, Food and Forestry Policies, 2019).

3 “Official statistics recorded more than 750 thousand beds in private apartments rented for tourists, but whose presence on the territory is certainly much more relevant” (Banca d’Italia, 2018, p. 67). Due to normative changes that occurred in the '80s, the official tourism statistics show that overnight stays in private apartments in Italy, which have grown from 1 million in 1970 to 2 million in 1986, have collapsed to 178,333 in 1987, and they have grown to 550,679 in 2009: 1.5 million overnight stays less than 13 years before (Istat, 2011).

4 In 2009, national minimum standards for hotel services and facilities were fixed (Gazzetta Ufficiale, 2019a). However, the new rules only applied to hotels opened or restructured from 2009 onwards. Moreover, it was left the possibility to the 20 Italian Regional governments to introduce higher levels of standard than those defined at national level. In 2014, a Law was approved that underlined the need to update the minimum standards fixed six years before (Gazzetta Ufficiale, 2019b), but the Implementing Decree has never been approved. As a result, the same number of stars in different Regions translates into different facilities and services.