Tourism trends and policies is becoming an international reference and benchmark on how effectively countries are supporting competitiveness, innovation and growth, and shed light on policies and practices associated with this. Despite the topic of attractiveness of tourist destinations is at the center of the international economic debate, there are still many areas showing important gap among potentials and performances and in most cases literature doesn’t offer a suitable measure and strategic solutions for this problem. From a destination-based tourism model, the transition has been made to a model driven by motivation and the search of experience. The forces driving the change are: internet, low costs, tour operators, OTAs and the new demand for experiences from tourists, which have changed the rules of the game and, most importantly, altered the balance between supply and demand. The paper has three research goals. Firstly, a driven-based analysis will be presented, aimed at identifying the factors which condition and/or support the sector, briefly touching a legislation, governance, funding and infrastructure and cultural heritage. Subsequently the paper will focus some deficiencies of the tourist system in Italy, still organized according to an endogenous vision of the sector’s development, and based on a model turned to a production perspective in which the offer is placed at the center of the system, with no added value and limited activity in term of retails, marketing and innovation and low level of professional competence. Finally the research will aim to propose a change of the tourism policy in Italy. As well as a reorganization of offer in a more innovative and experienced-based key, to be more competitive Italy needs the role of local government to be extensively reviewed: local administrations will have to take leadership of the destinations, bringing a strategic vision to the territory and becoming the main actor in conceiving and designing the offer of tourism.