PurposeThe pro-environmental behavior of tourists is becoming a topic of growing interest for both scholars and policymakers, given the numerous implications that it can determine. Recent studies have considered the role of visitor motivations for the adoption of on-site sustainable practices. This research fits into this debate, delving into the case of religious destinations, assessing if travel motivations can determine behaviors more or less oriented toward protecting the environment.Design/methodology/approachConsidering a sample of individuals who visited Assisi in the second half of 2022, a cluster analysis focused on the intensity of the motives of the visit was performed, followed by a confirmatory factor analysis centered on pro-environmental behavior and by a simple linear regression.FindingsThree clusters of visitors (the "Poorly Spiritual - Cultural - Escape - Motivated (S-C-E-M)," the "Spirituals" and the "Strongly Spiritual - Cultural - Escape - Motivated (S-C-E-M") emerged, with a different propensity to adopt pro-environmental behavior. Strongly S-C-E-M visitors, driven by cultural, spiritual and escape motives, adopt pro-environmental behavior to a greater extent than the other two groups; the spirituals are placed in an intermediate position, while the poorly S-C-E-M are the least accustomed to sustainability practices.Originality/valueThe paper fits into the debate concerning the antecedents of pro-environmental behavior, focusing on travel motivations. It offers a new perspective for understanding the implementation of sustainability practices by visitors to religious places, highlighting that spirituality can be a catalyst for pro-environmental behavior, but its power increases if it is accompanied by other types of motivations such as cultural and escape.

This study focuses on Environmental Concern and questions the role that Spiritual Motivation plays in its relationship with Pro-Environmental Behaviour. Drawing upon a sample of approximately 592 individuals who have visited Assisi (Italy), a covariance-based structural equation model (SEM) is developed. The results reveal that Environmental Concern positively impacts Pro-Environmental Behaviour, and Spiritual Motivation mediates this relationship. For younger and more-educated visitors, the influence of Environmental Concern on Pro-Environmental Behaviour is stronger than other groups. Notably, Spiritual Motivation is a mediator within this relationship for all visitor groups considered, yet the mediation effect is more pronounced for older and less-educated visitors.

Cultural routes have been recognized as effective social innovation projects to promote tourism development in marginal areas. However, the resilience of these routes, particularly in the face of external shocks and disruptions, remains a critical area of investigation. This study examines the role of cultural routes (as social innovation projects) in improving the resilience of these marginal areas after pandemic crisis. The research draws upon a combination of secondary data provided by ISTAT for assessing the marginality of the study areas and primary data on the impact of the "Via Francigena" project obtained through 32 interviews with managers of accommodation facilities (B&Bs, hostels, farm stays, hotels) located along the route itself. The findings of this study reveal that cultural routes offer significant opportunities for tourism development in marginal areas. Firstly, they serve as unique selling points, showcasing the cultural heritage and authenticity of these regions. Cultural routes provide a compelling narrative that attracts tourists seeking immersive experiences, promoting sustainable tourism practices and economic growth in these areas. Secondly, cultural routes act as catalysts for local community engagement and empowerment. By involving residents in tourism-related activities and initiatives, cultural routes foster a sense of pride, ownership, and entrepreneurship among the local population. The socio-economic benefits of the project determine a diversification of income sources and increase the resilience of communities located in the most marginal areas of the Apennines. However, a successful implementation of cultural routes to develop tourism and community resilience in marginal areas requires overcoming various challenges. These include limited resources, the need for a cultural change and the need for collaborative efforts among multiple stakeholders, including government bodies, local communities, tourism operators, and cultural organizations. This research contributes to the understanding of cultural routes as a powerful tool for tourism development in marginalized areas. The findings provide valuable insights for policymakers, tourism planners, and destination managers in leveraging the potential of cultural routes as social innovation projects. By capitalizing on the cultural heritage of these areas, cultural routes can drive economic growth, improve community well-being, preserve environmental heritage and thereby increase the economic resilience of communities. In conclusion, this research enhances our understanding of tourism resilience through the case of Via Francigena, demonstrating its relevance as a model for other cultural routes. By identifying key strategies and factors that contribute to resilience, this study informs effective planning and management approaches for the long-term sustainability of cultural tourism destinations and the preservation of cultural heritage. Future research should focus on evaluating the long-term impacts of cultural routes on tourism development, assessing visitor satisfaction, and investigating the potential replication of these projects in different marginal areas.

Purpose The purpose of the present study is to investigate travel agencies' social media usage and its perceived effectiveness by small- and micro-Italian travel agencies; the pre-pandemic period is compared to the forecasts for the post-Covid-19 period and different characteristics of firms and entrepreneurs are considered. Furthermore, the study analyses the expected benefits in terms of marketing objectives, such as improving brand image and/or personalizing the offer. Design/methodology/approach The research was developed through a questionnaire administered electronically to travel agents (282 respondents). The resulting data was analyzed by applying the McNemar test, a pairwise t -test and the multivariate analysis of variance. Findings The results show that social media are strategically significant for travel agents, even though their adoption is influenced by different agency aims; the perceived effectiveness results are diversified according to varying agency typologies. Research limitations/implications The two main limitations of the study are its focus on the Italian context only and the missing consideration of the consumer's point of view. The latter prevents an exhaustive assessment of future trends regarding the use of social media in the client–agency relationship. Originality/value The study, which focuses on a little debated topic concerning the relationship between social media and SMEs, organically explores various dimensions related to the adoption of social media by small agencies, also considering the impact of the Covid-19 on the perception of travel agents. As a further element of originality, the research takes into consideration the main social platforms separately rather than the set of tools as a whole.

Cultural Routes (CRs) are gaining increasing interest among both researchers and policymakers as an innovative form of sustainable tourism. However, the benefits that the territories crossed by a Route obtained are poorly studied. The aim of this paper is to fill this gap by evaluating the improvements that CRs as social innovation projects (SIP) cause to the local tourism ecosystem. The empirical analysis is based on the case of the Via Francigena (VF), one of the most important in Europe. It emerges the role of activator of community development processes covered by Via Francigena, capable of shaping the communities crossed with particular attention to marginal areas. At the same time, the route seems to stimulate lifestyle entrepreneurship with strong influence of social perspective rather than profit-driven one. The study contributes to increase knowledge about Cultural Routes as SIP, with important managerial implication on local tourism development.

The aim of the study is to propose a "quick-response" model for analysing the impact of small and medium events in urban contexts, capable of timeliness, with low budget and able to describe the nature and the intensity of the impact. In order to achieve this goal, a model based on four groups of indicators is proposed. They are referred to: the economic impact for territorial stakeholders, the visibility in the web, the economic balance and the positioning in the city event portfolio. The model has been tested on the Umbria Jazz Festival demonstrating its financial and organizational sustainability, as well as maintaining the quality and accuracy of the information collected.

PurposeThe objective of this exploratory research is to investigate the role of Twitter in crisis communication by analysing all the earthquake-related messages from local public authorities in four Italian regions (Abruzzo, Lazio, Marche and Umbria) during the seismic sequence that began on 24th August 2016 and finished at the end of January 2017.Design/methodology/approachThe study is based on a manual data collection of earthquake-related tweets. Founded on a theoretical framework, the data analysis has been developed both through textual analysis and in-depth interpretation by two researchers to catalogue the messages according to identified categories.FindingsIt emerges that the affected Italian regions used Twitter only for information coverage without offering a complete and detailed picture of the disaster. Most of the tweets concerned daily statements by politicians or regional administrators engaged in crisis management, while an accurate selection of the topics and messages to be launched does not emerge, with significant implications on the effectiveness of the tweeting activity itself.Originality/valueThis paper aims to contribute to the literature on crisis communication and social media during a natural disaster, highlighting the criticalities shown by the Italian case studies. The originality of this study relates to the comparative examination of Twitter activities for four regional government bodies involved in the 2016 Italian earthquake.

PurposeThis paper aims to deepen understanding of the role played by new technological tools used in customer–travel agency (TA) interactions by analysing the TA owner/managers' perceptions, pre- and post-Covid-19, regarding the effectiveness of in-store traditional and innovative tools.Design/methodology/approachThis exploratory study is based on a questionnaire-based survey conducted among Italian TAs and distributed via email from September 2020 to January 2021.FindingsThe study highlights how, even among TAs, the role of in-store technology is gradually taking on greater importance, and it delves into the specific business and socio-demographic factors that seem to cause differences among agencies.Research limitations/implicationsThe study focuses on the Italian context, which does not allow for any generalisations. Furthermore, it is only the travel agent perspective that is observed and not the consumer's.Originality/valueIn addition to helping to bridge the literature gap, this study on in-store technologies focuses on the TAs sector, where human resources and human relationships play a decisive role in customer experience and interaction. The paper investigates the travel agents' point of view regarding the introduction of new in-store technologies; it also highlights their growing adoption and use, overall, despite the travel catalogue still remaining the main tool for interacting with customers. The study also shows how the advent of Covid-19 has increased travel agents' propensity to use digital technologies.

Profiling event visitors has attracted increasing interest in tourism literature. However, in event visitors' segmentation, psychographic characteristics such as perceptions and satisfaction should be more emphasized by research. To fill this gap, our study aims at segmenting event visitors according to their overall perception of the exhibition, the perceived quality of the exhibition and their relationship with photography in terms of expertise. The study was based on a sample of 455 visitors of the photo exhibition “Sensational Umbria” by Steve McCurry (Perugia, Italy, 2014-2015), which was analyzed through a latent class approach. Results provide evidence of two different typologies of visitors: pragmatic and expert, who are differently affected by their level of expertise in photography and that are not convergent in evaluations about the exhibition. Theoretical and managerial implications, along with avenues for future research, are discussed. Negli studi in ambito turistico è emerso un crescente interesse verso la profilazione dei visitatori di eventi culturali. Tra le variabili di segmentazione utilizzate comunemente, le caratteristiche psicografiche – come le percezioni e la soddisfazione dei visitatori – dovrebbero essere maggiormente analizzate, sia dal punto di vista concettuale che empirico. Per colmare questa lacuna, il presente studio si propone di segmentare i visitatori di un evento in base alla loro percezione complessiva della mostra, alla qualità percepita della mostra e al rapporto dei visitatori con la fotografia. Lo studio si è basato su un campione di 455 visitatori della mostra fotografica di Steve McCurry “Sensational Umbria” (Perugia, Italia, 2014-2015), attraverso i modelli a classe latente. I risultati evidenziano due diverse tipologie di visitatori: pragmatici ed esperti, che risentono in modo diverso del loro livello di competenza nella fotografia e che non sono convergenti nelle valutazioni sulla mostra. Infine, il lavoro discute le implicazioni teoriche e manageriali e le prospettive di ricerca future.

The assessment of tourist offerings and the attractiveness of tourist destinations has been the subject of many studies in the tourism management literature over the years. Several authors have examined the territorial characteristics and factors that nurture tourist destination attractiveness in order to create flexible models that are capable of providing recommendations and instructions for destination management policies in the tourism industry. However, one of the fields in which this topic has so far been under-studied is with regard to pilgrim routes. Calling upon the Atlas of the Paths through Italy which represents the official census or count of Italian routes published and recognised by the Ministry of Environmental, Cultural and Tourism Heritage (MiBACT) in 2016, the purpose of this article is to compare all the Paths through Italy and classify them according to their expressed or unexpressed tourism potential. In particular, through an experiential approach and the use of Fuzzy Set Ideal Type Analysis (FSITA) methodology, this article aims to evaluate the attractiveness of the Paths in terms of their structural capability, create a taxonomy of the Paths, identify the most attractive type of Path which should be taken as a best practice benchmark, and provide managerial and policy suggestions to improve the attractiveness of the weaker Paths. The results of the analysis found that three Paths had strong potential and six Paths had good potential for tourism development. This study provides both a descriptive framework and an interpretative approach to the Italian Paths to help public intuitions manage and develop policies for the sustainable development of these pilgrimage routes.

The study focuses on the adoption of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) by traditional Travel Agencies (TAs) in the relationship with customers during the in-store purchase process. A survey has been developed on a sample of 2000 Italian TAs - reaching 255 respondents - interviewed during 2016. It aims to investigate the TAs' perception of strategic options to proactively deal with the change that ICT has brought about in the relationship with the customer, including the ever-increasing use of technological tools for the presentation of products and innovative technological solutions in physical store in order to facilitate customer-agency interaction. The results of the research show not only that younger TAs are more inclined to new ICT adoption, but also that the tourists still appreciate using traditional tools - like paper catalogues - during their purchase decision process. So, TAs consider digital technologies as great opportunities to enhance customer purchasing experience but the need to integrate high-tech and high-touch perspectives emerges.

This study aims to investigate the dynamics of online purchasing behavior through the analysis of a sample of students from Italy. The objective is twofold: firstly, to outline a descriptive picture of the type of relationship with the web and the use of the TAM model to highlight the propensity to use electronic commerce by the analyzed sample. An interesting evidence is the prevalence of using the Internet for social activities rather than for purchases. In fact, the propensity to purchase online is still very limited and mainly concerns cultural and tourist services rather than physical products. Mobile devices are the main devices for connecting students to the Web and, consequently, the most used for purchasing online.

The role of crisis communication is becoming increasingly important in disaster management, especially considering the impact that disasters can have on the image and reputation of tourist destinations. Although the literature has begun to focus on this topic in recent years, the greater number of natural disasters and the impact of new media communication tools, make this theme particularly interesting for further scholarly investigation. Developing an effective crisis communication strategy requires consideration of the role that local authorities, including destination management organizations (DMOs) play, the channels they use, and the content that should be included. Numerous authors have analyzed this issue from a chronological perspective in terms of the difference phases of a crisis starting from preparation and ending with recovery. However, a series of strategic requirements emerge alongside these phases for successful crisis management, including: - Cooperation with the media in providing information to the public; in particular, imparting a consistent message to all stakeholders to build credibility and preserve the image of organizations and destinations. - Preparedness and the capacity to plan an effective communication response to a crisis in advance, paying attention to the specific characteristics of each case. - The development of a public relations plan that creates a support network for the dissemination of communication across multiple channels facilitated by the web and Information Communications Technologies (ICTs).

orientamento alla sostenibilità (sustainability orientation) delle imprese osservate, attraverso un'indagine prettamente qualitativa.La raccolta dati è stata effettuata attraverso differenti

This paper presents a systematic review of recent academic literature analysing the role, organization and management of marketing activities in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). To this end, 310 articles published between 2006 and 2015 in 69 main journals devoted to small firms/entrepreneurship and management/marketing fields were analysed. This review shows that SMEs’ marketing has received great attention in both management and marketing literature in recent years. Findings reveal, on the one hand, the emerging role of networks and information and communication technologies in marketing behaviour by SMEs, and on the other hand a research gap in terms of specific marketing practices. Entrepreneurial marketing has been used as the main conceptual framework in reviewed studies, even if findings overall still point out a distance between the theoretical bases of reviewed contributions and the study of SMEs’ marketing behaviour and practices. Therefore, future research on the role of resources, relationships and networks could benefit from the combination of theories developed within the field of entrepreneurship with other approaches such as the resource-based view, the dynamic capabilities theory and the Industrial Marketing and Purchasing (IMP) framework.