Autenticità e risorse locali come attrattive turistiche: il caso della Calabria

Abstract

In the last decades numerous changes have affected tourism sector, such as the globalization of markets, the diffusion of new information and communication technologies, and, over all, the demand evolution. All these factors have caused the crisis of mass tourism and the socalled post-tourism birth, reshaping holiday taking and increasing tourist market segmentation. Today tourists want to understand the lifestyle and the local tradition of the destination. Therefore, tourist products must reflect the true culture of the place and must be authentic. This paper analyses the case of Calabria. Calabria is not a successful tourist destination and it is not affected by the main international tourist flows, also due to transportation difficulties and their high costs. The region draws principally the Italian segment of “summer, beach and sun” market and, therefore, it suffers of high demand seasonality. The latter explains the low average occupancy rate of accommodation facilities and the modest rate of return on investment in the tourism sector in the region. A consequence of the congestion of space during the peak season is the negative environmental impact of tourism because of the surpassing of the carrying capacities of the resource base in summer months. In order to overcome these problems, tourism flows have to be regulated and measures are needed to extend the tourist season. The starting could be offering authenticity and uniqueness, concentrating the efforts on typical elements of local lifestyle, history and tradition, involving also the local community. The proposed study analyses some successful enterprises created in order to achieve the previously illustrated aims.