Tourism in Italy

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Tourism in Italy

• Carlo Ruzza
• University of Trento

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Contents

• Introduction
• Social issues
• Environmental challenges
• Tourism in Italy historical background
• The Political Dimension
• The European Dimension
• Conclusions

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Italy in Europe
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Tourist locations in Italy
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1. Introduction

• Tourism has positive effects on the economies of
  the host countries. Direct and indirect effects
  concern foreign-exchange earnings, Gross Domestic
  Product (GDP) and employment.
• Meeting the tourist demands entails the
  production of capital and consumer goods as well
  as services from a wide range of economic sectors
  and, where economies are diversified, the
  multiplied effects may be considerable.
• Tourism has also important social, political and
  environmental implications. Socially it is an
  important factor of change in terms of values,
  lifestyles, and social structure. Politically, it
  has important implications on centre-periphery
  relations, on the composition of voting blocs,
  policy networks and state-civil society
  relations. Environmentally, it has important
  implications sometimes positive but often
  negative, such as pollution, traffic and
  cementification of coastal areas.
• The challenge faced everywhere is how to combine
  economic, social and political demands in a model
  of sustainable tourist development.

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The EU dimension

• At the European level, and from a political and
  policy point of view, tourism is being seen as
  one of the basic means for the realisation of the
  broad objectives of the European Union.
• Recent EU policy documents and action plans
  stress the contribution of tourism to the
  creation of jobs and wealth the opportunities
  offered for certain classes of the employment
  market (i.e. women and young people) the
  achievement of economic and social cohesion the
  opportunity given to less developed and
  peripheral regions to progress economically the
  protection of the environment and the
  consolidation of a European identity and culture.

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Environmental and social implications

• Globally, tourism continues to grow at a dramatic
  rate. This trend is expected to continue into the
  foreseeable future, and with it comes conflicts
  between tourist activity and the natural and
  social environment.
• The Mediterranean is amongst the most popular
  tourist destinations in the world, accounting for
  a third of all international tourist movements.
• The Mediterranean environment is extremely
  fragile and sensitive both to the quantitative
  and qualitative presence of human activity.
• A prospective rapid increase in the population of
  the region, changes in lifestyle, and an increase
  in tourist flows are likely to exert immense
  pressure on the physical environment of the area.
  
• Socially, tourism can enrich but also disrupt
  local cultures

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2. Tourism in Italy historical background

• Tourism started to attract the attention of the
  Italian government during the First World War,
  when its contribution to the balance of payments
  became worth of notice.
• Nothing was done, however, to promote this new
  economic sector, with the exception of the
  introduction of a residence tax for tourists a
  measure which was already the case in Austria,
  Germany and France. Local authorities were free
  to charge this residence tax, and to use the
  sums for the resorts upkeep and for new
  facilities.
• In this period tourism was an activity for the
  lucky few those tourists belonging to the
  cultural and economic élite of the Belle Époque,
  whose life style was widely different from that
  of the working class. The majority of the
  population was not allowed to enjoy their free
  time it was associated with idleness and was
  time stolen from productive activities. Its
  important role would be recognised only later by
  the Welfare State. The middle class would have to
  wait for the advent of the era of mass
  consumption and higher incomes to claim its right
  to free time and to recreational activities.

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The Years between 1945 and 1960

• In the early years, tourism was not
  conceptualised as an environmental or social
  threat. Laws for the protection of Venice and
  Assisi were passed, but at the same time,
  phenomena such as the intense process of
  urbanisation of the coasts of Liguria were taking
  place.
• The sporadic acknowledgements of the need to
  protect art cities and historic monuments were
  the result of the pressure that the cultural
  élites exerted.
• Italia Nostra was established in 1955 and
  promoted a more social approach to the problem of
  conservation. Its goals are the protection of the
  historic, artistic and natural heritage, and the
  diffusion of ecological values. In time, civil
  society organizations will have a relevant impact
  on controlling and steering tourist development.

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The beginning of mass tourism

• Mass tourism took off in the sixties. These years
  are characterised by the low quality of projects
  for the rationalisation of tourism sector
  structures.
• The post war economic situation was dramatic the
  countries from which tourists usually travelled
  to Italy, had all been involved in the conflict
  and Italy had suffered extensive damage both to
  the environment and to the structures and
  infrastructures.
• Despite this situation, arrivals of tourists
  started to rise rapidly as soon as the War was
  over, and soon reached 1937 levels (5 million
  arrivals). This phenomenon was the result of the
  post war euphoria the wish to enjoy life, meet
  people and make new experiences encouraged the
  Europeans travel.

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Tourism framed mainly as an economic activity

• Italy suffered from the ideological conditionings
  of a society which saw only the economic side of
  tourism.
• The lack of public regulation in the tourism
  sector during the post war years cannot be
  explained only by the economic difficulties which
  Italy was experiencing. There was a diffused
  belief that Italy would always be a favourite
  tourist destination due to the s cultural appeal
  of places like Rome, Florence and Venice.
• A cultural as well as a political change had
  taken place during the war namely the diffusion
  of the liberal culture which was in stark
  contrast to the former statism and to the
  conviction that industry, and not tourism,
  represented the basis on which to reconstruct and
  plan the development of marginal areas.
• No organic strategy for the management of the
  tourism sector was, therefore, drawn up, despite
  the favourable trend of tourism at international
  level and the growth of internal demand.

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Italy North and South

• It is the private sector that organised tourism
  supply. The areas with a mature tourism economy,
  such as the Dolomites, and those undergoing rapid
  expansion, such as the Adriatic coast, Versilia,
  Tirreno and Riviera Ligure, started overburdening
  the territory with services and structures.
• In some resorts, such as the Riviera Romagnola,
  the development of tourism brought about the
  change from a primary economy to a service based
  economy and the birth of family owned and run
  businesses.
• In the South, the state financed the
  modernisation of the industrial sector. The
  cultural and environmental resources of the south
  were not considered to be worthy of notice no
  attempt was made to organise tourism supply and
  innumerable abuses were perpetrated in the name
  of industrial development.

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The 60s and 70s and 80s

• The characteristic which best describes the
  tourism policy of the 60s was the lack of a
  strategic plan of action. The attempt to
  concentrate powers at national level was not
  successful because of the absence of a clear
  definition of responsibilities at national level.
• Tourism was one of those sectors which according
  to art. 117 of the Italian Constitution were
  transferred to the Regions. The way in which the
  Regions organised the policy of the sectors
  entrusted to them varied accordingly to their
  economic and social situation.
• Policies were generally tailored on the
  structural characteristics of the Regions, but
  this approach resulted in significant differences
  that contributed to the difficulty of promoting
  the tourism product Italy as a whole, rather
  than as a group of regions.

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Rural tourism in the 80s and after

• The law 730/85 put order in the issue of rural
  tourism, a segment which had been experiencing
  significant growth in recent years.
• The development of rural tourism can be traced
  back to two reasons first, agriculture is more
  productive in flatlands rather than in hilly or
  mountainous areas. These areas have become
  marginal as a consequence, and this has, in turn,
  led to the emigration of the local population and
  to the abandonment of the territory, with grave
  consequences on its conservation. Second, the
  process of industrialisation and modernisation
  has encouraged people to rediscover rural life,
  cultural roots and traditions, and to look for
  new ways of enjoying their free time.
• Uncontaminated rural environments became a
  valuable resource, which the rural tourism
  business could exploit.
• However, this law for the development of
  agritourism has given little results so far in
  terms of preserving the social and natural
  environment.

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Reasons for the failure of agritourism policy

• Regional agritourism regulations instead of
  helping the farm owners to develop their tourism
  business, discouraged them. Complicated
  bureaucratic and fiscal procedures and measures
  which, besides being complicated, were also
  generally unknown to the farm owners (e.g.
  accounting books for tourism activities are more
  complex than ones for agriculture) explain why
  farmers were reluctant to undertake such
  initiatives, especially in the south of Italy.
• Regional legislation is tailored to the specific
  characteristics of the Regions development,
  availability of capital, entrepreneurial culture
  and infrastructures.
• Agritourism is now more developed in those
  Regions where the tourism sector contributes
  significantly to the economy. This means that
  there is a link between the diffusion of
  agritourism and demand the Regions that
  experience higher demand and rural areas in
  proximity of tourist resorts are the most likely
  to develop this kind of tourism.

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After the 90s

• In the nineties the debate was dominated by the
  issue on the reform of urban planning, an issue
  with direct implications for tourism, as
  city-based tourism became more relevant.
• There were no strategies for the promotion of
  environmental resources for tourism purposes
  apart from the multi-annual regional development
  plans for tourism, whose major drawback is that
  they do not see the connections between tourism,
  environment and different sectors of the economy.
  
• The Ministry for Tourism was abolished with a
  Referendum on the 4th of August 1993. Powers for
  the tourism sector at central level were
  transferred to the newly established Department
  for Tourism. The Department has a more agile
  structure than the Ministry.
• It is better suited to responding to the needs of
  the sector, coherent with national economic
  planning and able to represent Italy in the
  European Union and in other countries. The
  functions of the Department include the drawing
  up of a three year plan, the representation of
  Italy in the definition of policies at EU level,
  the implementation EU legislation which regards
  tourism.

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3. The political dimension

• Art. 117 of the 1948-Constitution, listed those
  policy areas that would have to become competence
  of the Regions. Policy on Tourism and the Hotel
  Industry was included in the article. But the
  process of decentralisation will, in reality,
  remain dormant for many years. Powers will be
  eventually transferred to the Regions only at the
  beginning of the 1970s.
• In choosing to delegate this sector to the
  Regions and in linking it to the hotel industry,
  which represented just a segment of the supply
  side, the Constitutional Assembly showed a
  preoccupying disregard for the links which tie
  tourism to other economic and social sectors
  (such as the environment, culture and transport)
  and which bring about the necessity of
  integrating policies.

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Problems with politics and tourism too much
political interference and too little financial
autonomy

• The 60s opened with the institution of the
  Ministry for Tourism and Entertainment (1959).
  The ENIT - Ente Nazionale per il Turismo -
  (National Tourist office) also underwent a first
  reorganisation. This would not be the last time
  that the ENIT was subjected to a revision
  process it will be modified again in 1981, in
  1990 and 1995 in an attempt to make it more
  efficient in the promotion of Italian resorts
  abroad, and in the qualitative/quantitative
  monitoring of the tourist situation in Italy.
• The ENITs members were 25 representatives of the
  government and 4 representatives of local tourism
  agencies. Here lies the explanation of the
  problems that have always plagued the office too
  much political interference in the management of
  the office, and too little financial autonomy.

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Substantial fragmentation of the offer

• If one looks back on tourism policy up to the
  80s, it is clear that there have been no
  significant innovations in tourism policy over
  the years.
• Vertical and horizontal co-ordination of
  activities is still lacking, but there has been
  constant progress in the direction of both
  functional and organisational decentralisation.
• The results of this process are evident to all
  regional policies are very different and this
  results in substantial fragmentation of the
  offer.
• Since 1990, Law 142 has tried to deal with the
  reorganisation of local authorities in general.
  According to the Law, one level of government
  needs to be added to the traditional three
  (Region, Province and Community) it is the
  metropolitan area. However, this Law raises many
  questions which are the territorial boundaries
  of metropolitan areas? How will the conflicts
  between Region and metropolitan areas and between
  metropolitan areas and communities be solved?
  Which resources will be available for
  metropolitan areas?

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4. The EU dimension

• EU policies encourage the drawing up of plans at
  regional levels (e.g. the Docup, Unified Planning
  Documents) in application of the principle of
  decentralisation of powers to the regions, which
  it is promoting. Italian Regions have in fact
  expressed a desire to co-operate directly with
  the EU without the mediation of the national
  government, but have been experiencing some
  difficulties in doing so.
• The transfer of powers over tourism planning and
  administration of the industry passed to the
  regional governments following the Law Framework
  for Tourism of 1983.
• However, the distribution of responsibilities
  between national, regional, and local levels has
  always been extremely unclear. Moreover, the use
  made by the Regions of the powers delegated to
  them have been very heterogeneous. As a result
  some regions have been more active in tourism and
  environmental issues than others.

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The European Union and Sustainable Tourist
Development

• The European Union has attempted to achieve a
  leading role in putting forward the principles of
  Sustainable Tourist Development (Ruzza 2000a).
• Over half of the budgets of the Community recent
  action plans in support of tourism have been
  earmarked for sustainable tourism projects (CEC
  1997).
• This fact is indicative for the growing concern
  over the heavy burden that tourism is placing on
  Europes natural heritage. Ultimately the
  challenge is to reconcile tourism and nature
  conservation at regional and local level through
  integrated management.
• Programs such as Leader and Urban with both an
  environmental and a tourist focus have been
  financed, which promote local development in the
  context of sustainable tourism.

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5. Conclusions Italy, the EU and its recent
focus on participation of civil society in
tourism policy-making

• In recent years the EU has emphasised political
  participation of non-state actors. This is part
  of a shift of focus from government to
  governance.
• The emphasis on Participation amounts to a
  policy instrument that qualifies general policy
  approaches, both regulatory approaches and
  approaches based on economic instruments.
• As a policy instrument in itself it implies a
  variety of methods to reach policy decisions that
  need to be clarified. Participation means a
  chance for a social exchange in which actors from
  civil society relate to political authorities.
• In the context of this relation, several material
  and symbolic goods can be exchanged and these
  exchanged need to be coordinated in order to
  produce sound policies. One needs to identify the
  relevant types of exchanges to make sure that
  relevant actors can be incorporated in
  consultation and in decision-making activities.

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