| Abstract: |
This paper provides an empirical evaluation of the main determinants of hotel
prices in the Italian tourism industry. We pool information from two datasets:
i) a database on hotel prices and attributes based on the Touring Club Italia
Guide and providing information on about 1,100 hotels located in almost 300
towns in the entire Italian coastal region; and ii) a set of neighbourhood
characteristics indicators that assess local environmental quality and
artistic and cultural attractiveness. On the basis of the results of a hedonic
analysis of hotel price differentials, we show that tourists place a high
value on both marine environmental quality and local access to artistic and
cultural amenities. The contribution to consumer utility is sizeable in both
cases, but that of artistic and cultural amenities appears to be more stable
across seasons. On the whole, our results suggest that the widespread
availability of an extraordinarily rich artistic and cultural endowment, as is
the case of Italy, may strongly complement environmental attributes in
supporting the non-price competitiveness of the coastal tourism industry. |