Environment, logistics and infrastructure: the three dimensions of influence of Italian coastal tourism

ABSTRACT This paper examines the various dimensions that affect the tourist sector in order to provide an assessment of the environmental quality and logistic and infrastructural dimensions of Italian coastal municipalities. The analysis starts from the assumption that the environmental resources and logistic and infrastructural dimensions of each area represent an asset for the whole territory, since they are able not only to increase the quality of life of residents but, above all, to attract travellers, thus contributing to the development of the tourism sector. Therefore, it can be said that the dimensions assessed in this work increase the capacity of the territory to generate income. In the analysis a quantitative aggregative partially non-compensatory method, known as Mazziotta Pareto Index (MPI) was used; by means of the MPI it was possible to express the magnitude of the tourist phenomenon reducing the compensation effect that occurs every time indicators with non-homogeneous values are aggregated. The contribution provides further insights into coastal tourism, a particularly important tourist sector on a national scale.