Measuring the impact of tourism: a 'territorial' approach

The nature of tourism and the spheres of activity relevant to managing it are changing both in character and in scope. Consequently, traditional statistical and management information resources are not adequate for effective tourism planning and for tourism impact evaluation because they are deficient both in scope and focus. To adapt to the evolving nature of tourism and realize the full value creation potential for all stakeholders, planners, managers and operators must adopt a new conceptualization of the “space” over which relevant tourism related activities occur and over which these activities must therefore be comprehended and managed. A “territorial space”, which is not defined simply by geographical boundaries, but also by physical and intangible as well as actual and virtual boundaries is offered as a framework within which to conceptualize and approach planning and managing tourism in the newly evolved reality, and the BSC is as an effective tool for facilitating the implementation of a new approach in evaluating and studying the impacts of tourism as it could be well embedded into the “territory” concept and the Italian experiment on tourism districts will provide a perfect setting for applying the Proactive Balanced Scorecard to tourism.