Vincenzo Asero

Building Tourism Networks through Tourist Mobility

This article aims to define tourism networks analyzing tourist mobility between destinations. The study adopts network analysis methods, testing a data processing strategy that combines descriptive measurements and clustering tools. A segmentation approach has been employed to investigate differences or similarities between the trip-related attributes of tourists within networks. Data are from a sampling survey carried out on tourists’ visit in Sicily. The results show that the tourist choice defined the role of a destination as “central” or “peripheral” within a network. Tourists build their own networks around nodal destinations, even if they are geographically distant. Thus, tourist mobility affects the shape, the dimension, and the structure of the networks, where tourists are different for characteristics, trip-related behaviors, and type of holiday chosen. The study provides some evidence that can be useful for planning tourism facilities, managing tourism routes, and defining destination management strategies.

Wine tourism experience and consumer behavior: the case of Sicily

Wine tourist behavior-based research is essential to the development of wine tourism and to help wine producers to manage wine tourist demand. Wine tourism has increased substantially in the last decade throughout the whole Italian peninsula. Sicily, which represents an area becoming ever more a center of attraction concerning wine tourism, so far lacks research regarding winery visits and wine tourists in general. This article focuses on the wine tourism experience and consumer behavior, aiming to explore attitudes and characteristics of wine tourists in Sicily. To better understand the wine tourism phenomenon a survey was carried out in 16 member wineries of the Movimento Turismo del Vino, using a self-administered questionnaire. This research is exploratory and the results are very similar to those observed in other surveys. Hence, the Sicilian wine tourists are likely to correspond to the wine tourists profile defined on the basis of similar research.

Research Note: Analysing tourism demand in tourist districts – the case of Sicily

This paper analyses tourism demand in the tourist districts in Sicily to study the relationship between the characteristics of tourists, types of tourism and expenditure. The data were obtained from a survey of tourists leaving the island after a holiday. The likelihood of choosing a type of holiday is estimated by means of a multinomial logistic model. The findings highlight the importance of the seaside, cultural, and food and wine/nature segments. The analysis of the distribution of per capita per day expenditure shows higher average values for the cultural holiday. The research provides insights for decision makers concerning the implementation of destination market strategies.

The Montalbano effect: re-branding Sicily as a tourist destination?

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to focus on movie tourism, specifically on the “Montalbano effect”, which has seen increments in tourist visits to Sicilian sites featuring in the episodes of the popular TV series. It explores the concepts of genre and evaluative language in websites offering Montalbano tours in Sicily in an interdisciplinary perspective, aiming to combine insights from Tourism and Linguistics to analyse the phenomenon. Design/methodology/approach – The language of two corpora, one consisting of sites offering traditional Sicilian tours and another of sites devoted to Montalbano, is analysed in terms of genre and evaluative language. Findings – The study shows an emerging genre and genre hybridity that, it is suggested, are in response to market trends and may represent beginnings of a re-branding of Sicily as a tourist destination, away from past negative stereotypes associating the island with organised crime. Originality/value – The interdisciplinary aspect of the study represent...