Tourism consumption and interregional economic impacts in Italy

This paper analyses the consumption habits of tourists coming from different origins and choosing Italy as a holiday destination, in terms of expenditure level and composition. The economic role of both international and domestic demand and the plot of interactions going from tourist expenditure behaviour to the tourism industry have been measured. Furthermore, the impacts which localised expenditure (total and by item) can generate in each regional economic system are discussed, and estimates of the “centralising” and “leakage” effects are presented. The balance between these effects selects the net centralising regions of economic benefits deriving from tourism demand localised everywhere, with respect to those regions producing a net leakage of the positive effects generated by the demand localised in them.