Measuring the Tourism: A Synthetic and Autocorrelate Index for Italy

Abstract

Tourism is a phenomenon that in many Italian provinces, especially in southern Italy, is particularly important in the contribution to collective well-being. Moreover, data measured in a specific area (or province) can be influenced by what happens in nearby areas, generating what is commonly called “spatial autocorrelation” or “spatial interdependence”. This study is aimed at identifying a composite “systemic” index to measure the impact of tourist goods and others determinants can make to collective well-being in the provincial context through a composite index through the BES methodology (Equitable and Sustainable Well-being) and to analyze possible spatial autocorrelations between Italian provinces.

The method of construction of the index followed these steps:

• (1) analysis of the theoretical framework, methodology used and indicators;

• (2) choice of the statistical methodology

• (3) statistical analysis: in order to assess the robustness of the identified method and, therefore, improve decision-making, we also completed an influence analysis to analyze the most significant indicators (software COMIC - COMposite Indices Creator)

• (4) discussion of the results with the help of a georeferenced map of the synthetic touristic index of Italian provinces and a Cluster Map LISA which shows the provinces with statistically significant values of the LISA index, classified by five categories: (a) Not significant (white); (b) High-High (red); (c) Low-Low (blue); (d) Low-High (light blue); (e) High-Low (light red) (software GeoDa).