The Impact of a Book Festival on a Destination's Tourism Development

Book festivals are cultural events attracting a large number of participants, spectators and sponsorships. They are emerging worldwide as a growing sector of the tourism and leisure industries and are seen to have significant impact on the host places. Studies in tourism and hospitality management have examined the potential effects of hosting a cultural event, and revealed a variety of factors that influence the possible benefits for a destination. In many cases, the benefits lead to the repetition of the event, over the years, in the same place. These impacts have also become important factors for obtaining community-wide event support. In this regard, book festival attendance and spectators’ perception may constitute opportunities for increased benefits from tourism for a host destination, enhancing the role of an event in the development of tourism. Unlike economic impacts, however, legacy and intangible impacts are somewhat difficult to evaluate. Starting from these perspectives, this research focuses on tourism impact and legacy of cultural event hosting, considering empirical evidence from a book festival in Italy.