A First Analysis: The HoReCa Sector and 1996 Census
Following the described approach and starting from the LLMA of 1991, we can verify the social and productive characterization of tourist destinations. The aim is to identify those local systems through the characteristics of their SMEs.
The first issue is to define what belongs to the field of tourist activities and what can- not be considered tourism. We can use a broader or a narrower definition of tourism. For instance, we can either include in our analysis only hotels, camping and accommodation facilities and travel agencies, or also include those indirectly connected with it, like trans- portation, recreational activities and car rentals, or include those that are connected to the normal life of all places like bars, restaurants and coffee shops.
As a methodological simplification, in this operation we will adopt the ISTAT defini- tion of activities connected with tourism, through ATECO codes of the H voice: hotels, restaurants and cafes (HoReCa). The voice H, hotel and restaurants, described in the table below (Table 2.1) is recognized as the HoReCa sector.
Also the OECD (1999) recognizes that the workforce in the TTI pertain to three main pillars. Referring to the two digits ISIC international classification, OECD classifies the activities connected with tourism as:
● 55 hotels, restaurants and cafes;
● 60–63 transportation and travel;
● 92 recreational, cultural and sports activities (market and nonmarket services).
Naturally, all the workplaces created in these industries cannot be attributed to tourism.
However, OECD mostly refers to the HoReCa sector in its analysis of territorial employ- ment in the European community, as it is directly connected with tourism instead of with the other two categories.
30 Luciana Lazzeretti and Francesco Capone
We think that this simplification can be suitable and this analysis can identify special- ized TLS within a broader definition of tourism activities. In other words, we expect a stronger specialization in these activities in TLS.
The ISTAT collects this data in the 1996 “Intermediate census of industry and trade”
for each municipality: the smallest unit of analysis available. This data can therefore be clustered for the LLMA on the census of 1991, as described in the previous pages. The successive step has been to apply the indexes of territorial concentration to the approxi- mately 8100 municipalities in Italy as a whole, grouped into LLMA. These are the Lq used for tourism concentration:
1. Tourist local systems: this first Lq evidences those LLMA that have a strong special- ization in tourist activities:
Lq of HoReCa specialization⫽Lqis⫽
where Eis is the number of employees in local units in the local system s specialized in the sector i; Esthe number of employees in local units in the local system s; Eithe number of employees in Italy specialized in the industry i; and Ethe total employment in Italy.
Eis/Es ᎏEi/E
Identification and Analysis of Tourist Local Systems 31 Table 2.1: HoReCa sector.
55.11.0 Hotels and motels, with restaurant 55.12.0 Hotels and motels, without restaurant
55.21.1 Hostels
55.21.2 Mountain shelters
55.22.0 Camping areas and areas equipped for trailers and caravans
55.23.1 Tourist villages
55.23.2 Youth camps, rest homes (without medical care)
55.23.3 Sleeping cars
55.23.4 Short-stay rentals, vacation homes
55.23.5 Farm holidays
55.23.6 Other accommodation businesses (including apartment hotels) 55.30.1 Restaurants, diners, taverns and pubs with kitchen
55.30.2 Take away, pizza houses
55.30.3 Dining car management
55.30.4 Self-service restaurants
55.30.5 Restaurants with entertainment and shows
55.40.1 Bars and cafes
55.40.2 Bars selling milk products
55.40.3 Wineries and wine cellars
55.40.4 Bars and cafes with entertainment and shows
55.51.0 Cafeterias
55.52.0 Caterers
Source: ATECO 1991 (ISTAT, 1991).
This Lq indicates the concentration in the LLMA of tourist activities (voice H, ATECO, 1991) in comparison with the national average.
2. Local systems composed of SMEs: this Lq indicates those local systems that are char- acterized mainly by SMEs with under 250 employees, where these variables are the same of the previous Lq but calculated in local units with less than 250 employees.
Lq of SMEs⫽Lqis⫽
The second Lq is not presented in the results because it goes from the national average up to 1.05. It means that there are no LLMA that have a percentage of SMEs below 95% in tourist activities. More information is presented in the next section. The first Lq indicates those local systems that are more characterized by SMEs in comparison with the national average. In particular, if the value of the Lq is more than 1 for a local sys- tem, it shows a concentration level over the national average. Moreover, regarding the representation of the Lq, we adopted a fixed scheme with defined classes, in order to more easily interpret the results. In particular, these are the defined classes: [0–1), [1–1.5), [1.5–3) and above 3. These classes define particular concentration levels, for instance [1–1.5) identifies concentration levels between the national average and 50%
more than the national average.
The results of the first analysis are presented in Map 2.1.
The proposed map, constructed with the first Lq, identifies roughly 300 TLS with an index of more than a unit. The values go from below the national average up to 12 (12 times more than the national average identified in the darkest spots). The Lq values go from the national average up to 12. The 300 TLS have in average eight employees, there- fore they are mainly characterized by small enterprises. The LLMA are heterogeneous and present in tourist destinations such as “sea, sand and sun”, “snow and ski” and “lakes”. The whole of Italy is recorded, but in the north there is a higher Lq value. The coast has a high rate, but the highest Lq values are recorded in mountain localities. At an administrative level, Trentino, Veneto, Tuscany, Liguria and Emilia Romagna are the regions that register the highest quotients.
Art cities have Lq values below most of the other specialized local systems. For instance, Florence, Rome and Venice have an Lq equal to two. This is because the Lq rec- ognizes a strong specialization only in one activity and on the supply side. In the big cities, there is often a diversification of industries so that the TTI weight is less in an “only tourist place”. Moreover, the top 25 LLMA have a percentage of employees of more than 41%
under voice H, with a peak of 60% in the “snow and ski” LLMA (for instance in Canazei and Bardonecchia).
The TLS analysed belongs to the heterogeneous tourist segments. Some like Canazei, Badia and Cortina are typically of the snow tourism and of wintertime, others like Amalfi, Diano Marina, Porto Azzurro and Elba belong to the sea tourism of summertime. Other TLS are mixed, like Limone sul Garda or Fiuggi. Moreover, there is a prevalence of ski- ing stations, in approximately 45% of the local systems analysed.
The fact that the TLS follow the characteristics of the industrial districts is confirmed by the fact that they are mainly composed of small-and medium-sized enterprises.
Eis/Es ᎏEi/E 32 Luciana Lazzeretti and Francesco Capone
Approximately 90% of the labour force in the local systems works in SMEs with less than 20 employees. This estimate is strengthened when the percentage of enterprises with less than five employees is analysed, whose average is around 75%, with peaks close to 90% in Porto Azzurro and Limone sul Garda. This underlines the fact that most of the activities analysed are based on small enterprises.
In this context, a TLS is characterized by agglomerations of SMEs. Finally, the average of employees in the enterprises reaches five units with minimum peaks of three units in Malcesine and Porto Azzurro and maximum peaks of seven in Cortina of Ampezzo, Limone sul Garda and Pinzolo.
Therefore, these results confirm how the analysis through LLMA is applicable to the tourist industry so as to identify the TLS as described in the first part of this work. The TLS are strongly specialized in the tourist industry, their “core industry”, and local units are localized inside the borders of the LLMA.
We think it useful to point out two problems. The first is the definition of tourism adopted. Although it can be a proxy to tourist activities, it could lose local systems spe- cialized in other activities in parts of the filièreother than in the HoReCa sectors. The other Identification and Analysis of Tourist Local Systems 33
Map 2.1: Tourist local systems in Italy.
Source: Our elaboration from Census ISTAT (2001).
issue is the year of reference: 1996. We will try to face and solve these problems in the next section. First of all, a tourist filière ad hocwill be proposed on which to calculate the localization quotients and the database will be updated with the 2001 ISTAT Census.
A Second Analysis: The Tourist filière and the 2001 Census
In the previous study, we have applied tourist specialization indexes (Lq) to the HoReCa sector represented by voice H of the 1996 ISTAT “Intermediate census of industry and services”. Such analysis has allowed us to describe a first landscape of the Italian TLS.
Unfortunately, we have to face two types of problems. The first regards the definition used for tourism. Although it can be approximated to tourist activities, it does not count a real esti- mation of the incidence of these activities in the tourist industry. Therefore some local sys- tems could be omitted for being specialized in other areas of the tourist filière(transportation and recreational activities, for instance). The second problem regards the temporal reference of the data. The Census refers to approximately 10 years ago: 1996. In this section, we will update the source of the data by using the 2001 ISTAT Census in order to present a tempo- ral evolution of the Italian TLS. Finally, we will try to construct a tourist filièrereferring to institutional contributions like ISTAT, European Commission (2003) and OECD (1999).
Moreover, it is necessary to open a parenthesis regarding the territorial unit used. The territorial borders taken into consideration have the administrative reference of 1991 regard- ing the municipalities updated only to that date. In the period 1991–2001, eight new provinces have been instituted, while another eight have given municipalities to new ones.7 Therefore, the data of 2001 have been recounted to the borders of 1991 in order to carry out a comparison of the homogenous data and territorial units. Finally, other territorial modifi- cations8have been carried out and have been brought back to the municipalities of 1991.
Finally, regarding the census codes (ATECO, 1991–2002), several voices are changed, but the ISTAT internet site allows analyses based on the 1991 codes and makes directly available homogenous data from the 2001 ATECO Census.
After deciding the territorial unit of analysis, we must define what belongs to the tourist field of activity and what does not. In the previous study, a narrow definition through the HoReCa sector was adopted. In this section, we propose a new analysis through a filière as shown in Table 2.2 of the three digits ATECO 2002-NACE 1.1 definitions.9
It is expected that this simplification will be suitable for the identification of specialized TLS in a broader definition of tourist activities. In other words, we expect a stronger 34 Luciana Lazzeretti and Francesco Capone
7New provinces of Biella, Verbano-Cusio-Ossola, Lecco, Lodi, Prato, Rimini, Vibo Valentia and Crotone, insti- tuted in 1992 with municipalities detached from the provinces of Vercelli, Novara, Como, Milan, Bergamo, Forlì- Cesena, Florence and Catanzaro.
8In the same period, 11 new municipalities have been instituted, nine have been abolished, and the borderlines of 28 municipalities have changed (not including the municipalities that have englobed or detached uninhabited areas between 1991 and 2001). For further information, see the ISTAT website regarding the 2001 Census.
9The 2003 European Commission presented a model of competitiveness for the tourist sector of European tourist enterprises. We recall this contribution and insert the activities in the model into the proposed filière(Table 2.1) adding two voices, artistic artisans and agriculture, so as to evaluate any relationship with these two activities.
The filièrepresented is then similar to the tourist sector model of the 2003 European Commission.
specialization in these activities in TLS. Thus, in order to identify TLS, we apply to the LLMA a concentration index for the ATECO, 2002 definition:
Lq of concentration activities of the filière: Lqis⫽
where Eis is the number of employees in local units in the local system s specialized in the sector i; Esthe number of employees in local units in the local system s; Eithe number of employees in Italy specialized in the industry i; and Ethe total employment in Italy. An Lq above 1 indicates that an LLMA has a specialization (concentration) in the industry i above the national average. Regarding the representation of the Lq we adopt a fixed scheme with defined classes, so as to interpret easier the results: [0–1], [1–1.25], [1.25–2] and [⬎2].
Following the approach of Sforzi (1997a), we analysed the 784 LLMA selecting first those local systems specialized in: (1) industry and (2) services, then those specialized in (3) services to enterprises, (4) services to consumers and finally in (5) the tourist filièreas defined. Data have been collected from the Italian Industry and TradeCensus 2001 for each municipality.
Map 2.2 shows those LLMA with an Lq for the tourist filièreabove the national aver- age, subdivided by specialization in other activities for the year 2001.10Map 2.3 presents
Eis/Es ᎏEi/E
Identification and Analysis of Tourist Local Systems 35 Table 2.2: Broad tourist filière.
Agriculture Recreational, cultural and sports activities 01.13 Apiculture, growing of fruits, 92.3 Other entertainment activities nuts and beverages 92.5 Libraries, archives, museums and
other cultural activities
Artistic artisans 92.6 Sports activities
26.1 Manufacture of glass and glass 92.7 Other recreational activities products (artisans)
26.2 Manufacture of ceramic household Transportation
and ornamental articles (artisans) 60.1 Railway transportation 60.2 Other land transportation
Hotels and restaurants (HoReCa) 61.1 Sea and coastal water transportation
55.1 Hotels 61.2 Inland water transportation
55.2 Camping sites and other provision 62.1 Scheduled air transportation of short-stay accommodation
55.3 Restaurants Travel agencies
55.4 Bars 63.3 Activities of travel agencies and tour
operators, tourist assistance activities Real estate and rental
70.2 Letting of own property 71.1 Renting of automobiles
Source: Our elaboration from ATECO (2002, Nace 1.1).
10(1) No specialization in tourist activities, (2) specialized in tourism and industry, (3) specialized in tourism, service and commerce and (4) diversified as in Sforzi (1997b).
TLS with an Lq for the tourist filièreabove 1. It indicates around 300 TLS with an Lq up to 8. The highest values are concentrated in the North (Trentino and Alto Adige) and cen- tre of Italy (Liguria, Toscana e Lazio). The map also shows art cities like Florence, Rome and Venice,11localities specialized in the three Ss (Sun, Sand and Sea), skiing destina- tions (Alps, in particular Trentino Alto Adige) and lake localities (such as around Garda Lake).
The results between 1996 and 2001 are very similar and present in the same territorial patterns. The HoReCa proxy registers more TLS than when the filièreis used, although the latter has been constructed with a wide range of activities. From our point of view, one of the problems of using the HoReCa sector is that the medium–large centres weigh more than the small ones, since their specialization in these activities is greater than for the tourist sector.
36 Luciana Lazzeretti and Francesco Capone
Map 2.2: Tourist local systems in Italy. HoReCa sector (1996).
Source: Our elaboration from Census ISTAT (1996).
11The Lq recognizes a strong specialization only in one activity. In the big cities, there is a diversification of industries, so that the TTI weighs less in a “tourist place”.
The aim of this epigraph was to identify TLS in Italy. Regarding the first topic, the main hypothesis was to focus on clusters of localized SMEs specialized in tourist activi- ties in a broader sense. 12
We developed a methodology in two stages: firstly, we tested the methodology on the HoReCa sector that was generally considered a part of the tourist activities, then we con- structed a tourist filièreand applied an Lq to this filièrefor the identification of local sys- tems through GIS tools. The results of this analysis indicate that this methodology is applicable to the travel and tourist industry. The TLS recorded are heterogeneous and strongly specialized in the tourist industry, their core industry. They represent tourist des- tinations such as “sea, sand and sun”, “snow and ski” and “lakes” and Italian tourist des- tinations are suitably represented.
Identification and Analysis of Tourist Local Systems 37
Map 2.3: Tourist local systems in Italy and specialization activity (2001).
Source: Our elaboration from Census ISTAT (2001).
12See the contribution of Capone and Boix (2004) for any deepenings regarding the sources of competitiveness of Italian tourist local systems.