Assessing the impact of tourism on hospitals’ performance in a coastal destination

Tourism represents one the most relevant industries in promoting the development of a destination, but tourism and its seasonality can produce negative outcomes. The additional demand caused by tourism can strongly affect public service providers which cannot adapt their supply to seasonal variations as a result of organisational, financial and institutional limitations. This work focuses on hospital services in an Italian coastal destination and it aims to explain the impact tourism and its related seasonality have on the performance of hospitals in a coastal destination. The activity of three hospitals located in Gallura, a region in the north-east of Sardinia, Italy, has been analysed. The analysis has been carried out using data on hospitals admission from 2014 and 2015.The study highlights the critical impact tourism can have on the activity of healthcare providers in a coastal destination, identifying the reduction of hospital performance and a potential cause of bed crises.