Attractiveness of coastal towns in the south of Italy. International tourist flows and consumption in Naples, Bari, Cagliari, Messina and Reggio Calabria

The article begins with a historical-sociological, territorialist analysis to highlight how much the relationship between coastal locations, particularly in the Southern Mediterranean, and touristic practices has changed between the 18th and 21st centuries. Subsequently, remaining central to the interest in this relationship, the results of empirical research on international touristic flows and consumption in some coastal cities in Southern Italy from 2009 to 2019 are problematized, the analysis of which was conducted with the support of cartographic data representation techniques (Geographic Information System). Southern Italy is a privileged “scenario” for studying the dynamics of tourism and the different responses of the territories to the global tourist demand