Do Economic Crises Lead Tourists to Closer Destinations? An Analysis of Italy's Regional Data

29 Pages Posted: 26 Mar 2015

See all articles by Gianluca Cafiso

Gianluca Cafiso

University of Catania - Department of Economics and Business

Roberto Cellini

University of Catania - Department of Economics and Business

Tiziana Cuccia

University of Catania - Department of Economics and Business

Date Written: March 25, 2015

Abstract

This article investigates whether the distance between origin and destination has played an increased role in shaping Italy’s domestic tourism flows during the recent years of economic recession. Indeed, the occurrence of closer tourism destinations, as a consequence of the economic crisis, has been recently suggested by a number of authors who obtain their results from micro-data and, more specifically, from surveys. Differently, we study this issue through aggregate official data. Our dataset is made of inter-regional tourism flows among Italian regions over the 2000-12 period; across this period, 2008 to 2012 are years of economic recession. The analytical tool employed is a gravity model. Our results document that distance played a more and more relevant role during the recession.

Keywords: tourism, gravity mode, regions, distance, great recession

JEL Classification: L830, R120, C290

Suggested Citation

Cafiso, Gianluca and Cellini, Roberto and Cuccia, Tiziana, Do Economic Crises Lead Tourists to Closer Destinations? An Analysis of Italy's Regional Data (March 25, 2015). CESifo Working Paper Series No. 5250, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2584935 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2584935

Gianluca Cafiso (Contact Author)

University of Catania - Department of Economics and Business ( email )

Corso Italia 55
Catania, 95129
Italy
+39 095 7537 745 (Phone)

HOME PAGE: http://sites.google.com/site/giancafiso/

Roberto Cellini

University of Catania - Department of Economics and Business ( email )

Corso Italia 55
95129 Catania, 95129
Italy
+390957537728 (Phone)
+390957537710 (Fax)

Tiziana Cuccia

University of Catania - Department of Economics and Business ( email )

Catania, 55
Italy

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