Abstract
The purpose of the paper is the study of tourism competitiveness and its determinants for the almost 8000 Italian municipalities. The partial least squares method is used on secondary data. Competitiveness is a latent factor measured by a number of reflective indicators, and influenced by some latent determinants derived within a formative scheme. The main findings show the importance of competitive advantages as key drivers of tourism competitiveness. Local specialized areas in tourism are identified through the destination competitiveness scores. The work contributes to the study of local competitiveness, also giving evidence on how it is possible to cover the complex feature of tourism competitiveness with secondary data. Moreover, as the municipality is generally the basic territorial unit for identifying specialized local areas, future research can apply these results in drawing a map of Italy with sounder areas for tourism analysis. Main limitations are concerned with the imputation of missing values, as data on tourist flows of smaller municipalities are not released for confidentiality issues. Moreover, the analysis at local level limits the use of some indicators, which are recognized as important determinants of competitiveness (prices of tourist services, transportation costs).
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Source: our processing of secondary data
Source: our processing of secondary data
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Notes
DOP (Denominazione d’Origine Protetta) is a brand classification guaranteed by the European Community (EU) for promoting the authenticity and artisan characteristics of certain food and agricultural products. IGP (Indicazione Geografica Protetta) applies to agricultural or other products whose qualities/reputation and production/transformation refer to a specific geographical area. DOC (Denominazione di Origine Controllata) and DOCG (Denominazione di Origine Controllata e Garantita) legally identify wine production zones.
ATECO is the acronym for the Classification of Economic Activity adopted by ISTAT according to the European Nomenclature Nace Rev. 2. https://www.istat.it/en/archivio/17959.
EMAS (Eco-Management and Audit Scheme), is a voluntary tool set up by the European Community which organizations (private companies, public bodies, etc.) can voluntarily join in order to evaluate and improve their environmental performance.
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Conti, E., Grassini, L. & Monicolini, C. Tourism competitiveness of Italian municipalities. Qual Quant 54, 1745–1767 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11135-019-00941-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11135-019-00941-2