Agritourism flows to Italy: an analysis of determinants using the gravity model approach

Tourism represents one of the most important income sources for Italy. In recent years, apart from “traditional” destinations, tourism supply is widely changing in order to satisfy the customers “love for variety” and valorise marginal resources, then new formulas are emerging (e.g. agritourism). This work aims to elaborate and estimate an econometric model able to adequately explain the size of agritourists flows to Italy from main partner countries using the gravity model approach that has been broadly applied to the analysis of international flows. In this work, the “basic” model has been enlarged and improved with the introduction of other explicative variables. The results has allowed to confirm empirical validity of the gravity model in studying international flows of any nature. Furthermore, the estimated econometric model represents a useful analytical instrument to describe, and, eventually, predict demand of foreign visitors for agritourist vacations in Italy.