Tourism development in Sicily during the fascist period (1922-1943)

This article provides a case study of the development of tourism in Sicily duringthe first four decades of the twentieth century. It assesses the attempts of regionaland national government, especially during the fascist period, to promote tourismthrough the provision of elite services and attractions and the development ofinfrastructure, and tries to explain the limited extent of their success. Theseinitiatives are set in the comparative context of developments elsewhere in Italyduring this period, and the findings of this article can usefully be compared withthe development of tourism under other contemporary authoritarian regimes inEurope, especially Germany under the Nazis and Spain under Primo de Rivera.The Sicilian situation is also compared with spatial and temporal trends onnational and international scales.