Turismo inbound e ricettività in Sicilia: un’analisi della distribuzione spaziale

In the last few years a significant increase in tourist accommodation has taken place in Sicily, both in hotels and in other hospitality. The increased number of accommodation beds has been encouraged by a multilevel policy of investments – both regional and European – aimed at filling the qualitative and quantitative gap penalizing Sicily in the field of tourism and accommodation competition. In some way, it may seem that the purpose of improving the accommodation supply in our Island has been obtained: indeed, while in 2000, the year when the previous European planning started, the number of accommodation beds in hotels was, in Sicily, of 4,2% of the national amount, in 2008 the Island rate has gone up to 5,3 (ISTAT source). What remains to be verified – being the main object of the paper – is whether there is an increase in demand corresponding to the dynamical evolution of Sicilian tourist accommodation sector in the last few years. In other words, whether the inbound tourist flows to Sicily in the last ten years manifest a trend similar to what can be observed, in the same time, for the tourist accommodation supply.