Descrizione
Movements in tourist accommodation establishments in the province of Pistoia
The aim of the work, which focused particularly on the period 2013-2015, was to analyze the arrivals and presences in tourist accommodation establishments in the province of Pistoia, for the purpose of providing prompt, adequate and suitable information for the promotion of tourism in the area. The Tourist Office of the now suppressed Province of Pistoia had, in fact, prepared new indices and classifications for these years, which included the sex and age of guests and their length of stay. In addition to providing more detailed knowledge of the client, the resulting data also enabled the creation of loyalty programmes for the entire hotel and non-hotel accommodation sector.
After recalling the origin of tourism statistics in our country and how they have evolved over the years, due also to the advent of information technology, data on the consistency of hotel and non-hotel establishments in Pistoia and variations in the flow of arrivals and presences were taken into consideration.
Observation focused not only on the province, but also on broader territorial areas: the Metropolitana, Montana and Valdinievole districts. Arrivals and presences were broken down by month, type of accommodation, and the provenance of tourists (national or international).
The traditional approach was followed by an analysis of arrivals classified by sex, age group and length of stay. The latter are “new data” for which coverage is still not entirely complete, but which are, nevertheless, of great interest, in the light of the peculiarities revealed in seasonal trends as regards type of accommodation and nationality.
The analysis ended by pointing out how both the old and new data were useful for providing suitable and immediate knowledge of trends in the hospitality industry and, above all, since a complete collection of data is involved, for promoting even very small areas of the country. The Pistoia Provincial Tourist Office also studied the reasons why travellers had chosen to stay at their accommodation establishments; some were on school trips, others were engaged in sports activities and a few were attending health resorts. Many gave culture and cultural tourism as the reason for their stay, an aspect which appears to make the choice of Pistoia as “City of Culture” for 2017 well deserved.
