Abstract
The objectives of this chapter are twofold. First, to verify whether the tourism sector may be considered a means of entrepreneurship and growth for Italian companies, and second, to identify the key drivers within the tourism consumption trend, as a consequence of changes in the environment. Italy is universally renowned for its strong vocation for tourism. The Italian tourism sector is one of the most important to the Italian economy, thanks to the richness of the country's resources. The market seems to be particularly susceptible to external pushes linked to the socio-demographic, cultural, political and economic context, which impact on to the tastes and desires of individuals. The chapter is structured as follows. The second section analyzes the theoretical background of the topic. The third section outlines the main focus of the chapter. The fourth section presents future research directions for this topic. Finally, the fifth section presents the conclusion of the study.
TopBackground
Companies find their reason to exist in satisfying human needs, and indicating an awareness of a lack (Airoldi, Brunetti, & Coda, 2005). Human needs can be divided into two different categories (Giacosa, 2011) basic needs and secondary (or higher-level needs). The basic needs are characterized by the need to meet basic requirements such as eating or drinking while the secondary are characterized by the necessity to satisfy desires that are not basic, such as travel and using all the services connected to it. The secondary needs can be generated by wanting to belong to a specific social class, social needs (Montanari, 2003) or by the need, using language consisting of tangible and intangible elements, to achieve a social condition, communication needs (Cappati & Montanari, 1999).
Tourism is one of the major economic sectors which many countries depend on. For these reasons a series of studies have analysed this sector in general (Aiello, 1996; Buhalis, 1998; Santarelli, 1997; Sciarelli and Rossi, 2007; Tribe, 2011) and its development (Murphy, 2013). Some research has analyzed the companies that move into this sector (Cantino, 1994; Cercola, 1984; Dammacco 1992) and their transformation (Moroni 2008; Montanari, 2004). Particular attention has been paid to aspects related to the marketing of this sector (Holloway, 1994; Pencarelli, 2001; Ryglová, 2011; Sciarelli & Della Corte, 2003). The concept of brand image has been widely studied by researchers in the area of marketing (Kim & Kim, 2005; Sahin & Baloglu, 2011). A careful analysis has been made, in this sector, of a growing demand for higher quality service and on the change in and the evolution of customers (Chen & Chen 2010; Lee & Burns, 2004; Vajčnerová & Ryglová, 2013).
Key Terms in this Chapter
Economic Sub-System: Represented by the general economic system, which dictates the living standards within a community.
Cultural Sub-System: Influences the values and tastes of consumers, impacting on their choices in terms of consumption and also creating trends in tourism market.
Natural-Physical and Technological Sub-System: Represented by the natural factors and some factors developed by humans which impact on the tourism sector.
Company Environment: The context in which a company operates, which could be divided into a series of sub-systems that affect the company’s input–output logic and, as a consequence, have an impact on the consumption choices of individuals.
Tourism Sector: It belongs to the wider services macro-sector of “tourism, leisure and communication sector” and is made of several types of companies operating in the following activities: hospitality and catering; travel agencies; entertainment; publishing; telecommunications and IT services.
Company Sub-Systems: The parts into which the company environment could be divided. In order to ensure a detailed investigation, the company environment could be divided into the following sub-systems: natural-physical and technological; cultural and social; economic; political-legislative ones.
Political-Legislative Sub-System: Represented by the political regime and the legal and legislative environment, which impact on the legislative framework within which the companies operate.
Social Sub-System: Represented by the division of society into groups or classes, as well as the relations between these groups and the possibility of social mobility.
Human Needs: The needs manifested by each individual, which represent specific life necessities dictated by perceptions of aspects that are lacking. Such human needs are perceived according to the framework of a mental rating scale. According to this rating scale, these needs could be classify in different categories: primary needs, which are linked to the necessity to make use of goods that are essential in order to meet basic life conditions; secondary needs, which are represented by aspects that are not necessary in a strict sense.