03416 - Economics of Tourism

Learning outcomes

At course completion, the student is expected to have acquired the fundamentals of the macro- and micro-economic analysis of tourism. In particular, the student should be able to: - evaluate through which mechanisms and to what extent tourism influences economic systems; - analyse the behaviour of consumers and touristic firms, demand and supply of touristic goods and services, and the equilibrium of the tourism market; - identify and analyse the strategies of touristic firms; - identify and analyse the different types of competition typical of the tourism market.

Course contents

• Definitions and content (Ch. 1)
• Tourism in the economic system (Ch. 2) + tourism multiplier (Ch. 12.1-2 + additional material on the regional multiplier) + input-output multipliers (additional material) + tourism satellite accounts (additional material)
• Economics of destinations (Ch. 3 (excluding sections on marketing/management/web marketing) + additional material on revenues and elasticity, and on forecasting)
• The tourist as a consumer (Ch. 4)
• More on the tourist-consumer theory (Ch. 5, aside from Section 5.7.4)
• Seasonality in tourism (Section 6.5)
• Tourism firms (Chs 7-8)
• Tourism markets (Ch. 9, until Section 9.3)

Readings/Bibliography

Main textbook: Candela G. and P. Figini (2010) Economia del Turismo e delle Destinazioni. McGraw-Hill, Milan.

For non-Italian speakers, the main textbook is available in English as well, in a slightly revised form, as: Candela G. and P. Figini (2012) The Economics of Tourism Destinations. Springer, Heidelberg.

Additional textbooks used during the course: (1) Dwyer L., P. Forsyth and W. Dwyer (2010) Tourism Economics and Policy. Channel View Publications, Bristol; (2) Armstrong H., J. Taylor (2000) Regional Economics and Policy (3rd ed.). Blackwell Publishing, Malden.

Any additional material with respect to the main textbook is made available online by the instructor within the course's teaching material.

Teaching methods

In-class lectures.

Assessment methods

The exam is carried out in written form (90 minutes of time), and is generally structured as follows: 

- ten multiple choice questions;

- one/two exercises;

- two open-answer questions to be chosen between three.

During the course, both the list of open questions and all solved exercises are made available within the teaching material.

Students who are not fluent in (reading or writing) Italian should contact the instructor at least a week before the examination to ask for an English examination text.

A positive final mark can only be refused once. Refusal of the grade has to be communicated via email within the day of the subsequent office hours of the instructor.

Optional groupwork can be carried out, which covers 30% of the final grade.

Teaching tools

- Teaching material.

- Teaching assistant (tutor).

Office hours

See the website of Roberto Patuelli