TOURISM GEOGRAPHY

1. Knowledge and understanding: The student will acquire specific skills in the field of geography of tourism which allow him to understand the political, cultural, social and economic dynamics influencing the tourist market and the behaviour of economic and institutional actors operating in the tourist sector, by testing their impact on the territory.

2. Applying knowledge and understanding: the student will be able to apply the theoritical, analytical and conceptual tools of the geography of tourism in the fields of territorial programming, planning and management. In addition to this, the student will be able to use the tools of analysis and design of field projects in order to promote the development of products and itineraries with the support of appropriate models.

3. Making judgments: the student will be able to collect, process and interpret quantitative and qualitative data, aimed at the evaluation of tourism systems and the impact of tourism, in the aspect of sustainability too. The student can then systematically organize these assessments in an articulated reflection on specific local situations.

4. Communication skills: The student will be able to transfer to others, with a full command of technical language, information and assessments about tourism systems and related local economic contexts.

5. Learning skills: after a gradual learning process coherent with the master’s degree course, at the end of the lectures the student will have acquired the necessary knowledge to deepen and integrate the more general economic knowledge with the specific skills of tourism geography.

Teaching consists in frontal lessons. Besides lecture notes, seminars and the case study will be provided.

Should teaching be carried out in mixed mode or remotely, it may be necessary to introduce changes with respect to previous statements, in line with the programme planned and outlined in the syllabus.

The evolutionary stages of tourism. General trends and tourism types. The economic growth of touristic activities. The role of socioeconomic and techical factors. Tourism actors and policies. Spatial models of tourism destinations. Typologies of touristic spaces. Globalization and tourism. Cultural tourism and cultural heritage. Global urbanism, mega-events and urban tourism. Sustainability, innovation and tourism. Inner areas and tourism valorization. Tourism systems. Tourism marketing and destination branding.

1. Bencardino F., Prezioso M., Geografia del turismo, MacGraw Hill, Milano, 2007.

2. Lozato-Giotart J.P. , Geografia del turismo, Hoepli, Milano, 2008.

3. Mangano S., I territori culturali in Italia. Geografia e valorizzazione turistica, Carocci Editore, Roma, 2018.

4. Di Bella A., Petino G., Scrofani L., "The Etna macro-region between peripheralisation and innovation: Towards a smart territorial system based on tourism", in Regional Science, Policy and Practice, 2019 - pp. 1-15.

5. Di Bella A., "Mega-eventi, città globali e austerità: Londra 2012 e Rio 2016 attraverso il pensiero di Milton Santos", in Geotema, Supplemento, 2019 - pp. 17-26.

Handouts of papers and powerpoint presentations: https://studium.unict.it/dokeos/2021/main/document/document.php?cidReq=21072&curdirpath=/shared_folder.