Tourism demand in Sicilian tourist districts

Our study is aimed at identifying types of tourists within the territorial tourist districts in Sicily. Our goal is to understand how to configure the tourism demand in relation to structural characteristics of tourists and their spending behaviours.In Sicily, the concept of tourism as a system is reflected in tourist districts – “territorial” and “thematic” – defined on the basis of Regional Decree n. 4/2010 that establish criteria and procedures for their recognition, prescribing certain essential requirements.The model on which tourist districts are based follows a bottom-up approach, since it offers the opportunity for local stakeholders – public and private – to make a system through the autonomous definition of a geographic area and to identify a common project idea, accompanied by a development plan, in order to organize and manage the tourism offer within a given territory.