Foreign tourists reaching Italy: transport mode choice and seasonality

This work investigates the relationship between transportation and tourism from a perspective up to now not adequately studied. The aim is to analyse the foreign tourists’ transport modal choices to reach a destination and evaluate their impact on tourism demand seasonality. A survey on international tourism in Italy in the last twenty years is analysed to reach this goal. The increment in air transport used to reach Italian tourist destinations emerges, mainly due to low-cost carriers' growing relevance. The TRAMO-SEATS program has been used to isolate the seasonal component, and two inequality indexes have been applied. The results show different seasonal patterns according to the transport mode used. Tourists who use the car tend to travel more during the peak season than those travelling by plane. The changed travel habits of foreign tourists also affect the international tourism geographical distribution among the three main Italian macro-areas.