Paola Ossola

This paper focuses on assessing the level of satisfaction of customers that had spent some part of their holidays in an eco-way style. This is an innovative form of hospitality that is represented by the \u201cAlbergo Diffuso\u201d. The connection between this sustainable tourism model and the customers wellbeing is based on concepts which are directly connected with sustainability and environment in a rural destination. The data are related to 450 reviews which were selected randomly from two websites of reviews and are about 15 different Hotels (Albergo Diffuso model). The methodology of content analysis, with a successive application of regression model, has been used to understand the factors that influence the tourist\u2019s opinion. It also identifies the role ofsustainability, innovation, and tradition for customers that spend their holiday in ADs. The hypotheses tested in the paper are associated with the features of the literature and the link with sustainability of this mo...

Cycle tourism is considered as a trendy opportunity of local development that should be taken into consideration by several destinations to (further) increase tourism according to the sustainable development approach. It is a broad and complex phenomenon that involves various social and economic actors. Cycle tourists are looking for new and deep experiences to better benefit from the local identities and the uniqueness of the landscape of a territory. Cycle tourism gives sustainable access to environmental and cultural resources of territories often neglected. Despite its evident potentialities, the lack of studies represents a drawback that could compromise the local development. The aim of this chapter is first to describe the characteristics of this form of tourism both in terms of its contribution to the sustainable development and of demand and supply features. Second, the study focuses on an Italian area that is strongly investing in the development of this form of mobility: an area called “Insubria,” which is located in the Lombardy region, near the Swiss border and includes, as main cities, Varese and Como. The work explores whether the supply of the tourism product in this area is aligned with the current and future demand trends of cycling and tourism. The analysis ends with some suggestions about possible improvements in the area and for the long-term industry competitiveness.

Benefit Corporation could be one of the possible reactions to having a new model of capitalism and business management because there is a combination of economic activities with the common satisfaction of social needs. In 2016, the Italian legal system introduces the case of the Benefit Company. Italy becomes the first state to acquire a discipline in this area of for-benefit companies, the analysis of the discipline configures the Benefit Companies as a context solution that mutates, as far as possible, the discipline of Benefit Corporation. The Italian Benefit Society is seen as a revolutionary step forward, in a traditionally static and sometimes obsolete context and the new law has generated a strong interest and enthusiasm and many companies have already decided to become a Benefit Company. The following paper is intended to illustrate the process that led to the birth of the B Corp movement and its first evolution in the United States with the legal legitimacy of the Benefit Corporation and then in Italy with the discipline of the Benefit Company. The objective is to verify the responses of the Italian context to the new legislation on Benefit Company, with particular reference to three aspects: 1. If the Benefit Company will be able to become an appropriate vehicle for entrepreneurs who want to operate in a sustainable way; 2. If the Benefit Company will be able to represent an interesting business model for those long-term investors looking for companies able to simultaneously generate economic and social benefits; 3. If the Italian experience will be able to produce a "domino effect" among other EU Member States that facilitate the dissemination of the "B" approach and, consequently, promote the establishment of companies with a strong positive impact measured with standard verifiable on social and environmental performance

Many Italian destinations currently live the challenge of rejuvenation, after being flourishing tourism destinations for years. After having lost their popularity, these destinations enter stagnation and enjoy a revamp in tourism arrivals and receipts only in conjunction with the hosting of different events. For a tourism development based on event tourism, EXPO Milano 2015 (as of now EXPO) is currently one of the most important opportunities to make up for the lost time. Conscious of the opportunity provided by this worldwide event, Italian local authorities and stakeholders have tried to give impulse to different tourism initiative that could have boosted tourism development in these areas. In the Varese area one of the destination looking for a tourism second chance, the development of different tourism offers, i.e. clubs have been promoted. Cycling, horse riding, food and wine, and cultural clubs are the soul of this offer that empathizes the slow enjoyment of the beauty of this...

This article aims to evaluate the market performance of the European tourism industry from 2004 to 2014, a period that includes the financial and economic crises, to highlight which macroeconomic factors influenced the industry stock returns. The Stoxx Europe 600 Travel & Leisure price index is used to proxy the industry stock performance, and a multifactor market model is employed to individuate which macroeconomic variables are able to drive tourism stock performance. Results highlight that tourism stock performance is influenced by market conditions and by uncertainty, measured through the Chicago Board Options Exchange Volatility index (VIX). Despite the importance of tourism in Europe and its contribution to the economic growth, there is scant evidence on the performance of this industry in this area and on its relationship with economic conditions. The article, to the best of knowledge, represents the first contribution on the performance of European tourism industry in crisis...

Many tourism destinations worldwide have lost their attractiveness and reached stagnation. In order to enable them to find a way to rejuvenate they need to find new innovative offers and explore new target markets. Recent changes in the population, in particular the aging factor, enable to identify new promising markets, such seniors. Seniors are considered as an important new target market to invest in since they have spending power to travel and they travel for longer time and off-season. Although seniors are an interesting market, they bring with them the effects of ageing, i.e., disability. Among different disability, dementia plays an important role. This made policy makers and businesses starting to be interested in dementia tourism. Some supply led initiatives have already been created, but further insights are needed to understand whether people with dementia and their caregivers are interested in such offers. This paper aims to explore this further. The qualitative findings of this research shows that people with dementia and their caregivers will benefit of such tourism offers, and they are willing to participate in them if extra-care is offered. This shades positive lights on the fact that such an offer could be successful. However, it is important to notice that not every caregiver is positive in making their beloved one participating in such activities, and they won\u2019t be willing to participate as well. As a matter of fact, factors such as the level of cognitive impairments, and the level of behavioral impairments influence the possibility to join such activities. The willingness of joining such activities is also influence by the family bond: husbands and wives are more prone to participate than children. This depends as well on the perception of tourism as a beneficial activity by caregivers, and the need of diversion, respite, and enjoyment of time together. If caregivers do not see tourism as something positive for their wellbeing and the one of the beloved one they will not be interested. Last but not least the lifestyle before dementia and past experience of tourism in early stage of dementia influence strongly the willingness to participate. With this in mind the markers should spend time in making sure that this offer will be appealing to their target market before starting an initiative, which although being extremely good in theory, might not be actually needed in the reality

This chapter provided you with the basis on which to reflect on ways to improve an AD type of hospitality business that you have established or managing. By reading the chapter, you would have gained a deeper understanding of how important it is to rely on trust to be able to achieve collaboration and cooperation success at the level of a destination in order to advance your business success, especially where opportunism is present. You have also further your understanding on how the new paradigm of \u201ccoopetition\u201d is essential to develop the AD model, and how it is going to be important to spread these principles, where such an initiative will be carried out in Botswana. The chapter strengthened your ability to discuss the characteristics of the AD model more broadly, and to plan to mitigate against the various challenges to \u201ccoopetition\u201d in general. The case study used in the chapter to prompt your reflection about how to go about resource planning for the develo...

By reading the chapter it is possible to understand how important the AD model is for the development of almost abandoned villages. It is also possible to understand how sustainability and tourism can work together a driver for tourism development in particular for places or locations within a destination that are yet established as attractions for tourists. The chapter provided you with the confidence to discuss the relationship between tourism development and sustainability, and to report with self-assurance on how to achieve both. The chapter strengthened your ability to discuss the characteristics of the AD model, including its weaknesses, and to advance arguments for the implementation of the model in the Botswana context. The case studies used in the chapter are to prompt your in-depth reflection about the opportunity to apply the AD model to the Botswana setting

Our proposed paper draws upon self- administered on-line questionnaires to elaborate theory about trust and control. Our study is anchored in the literature about the relationship between trust and control and makes three important contributions. First, much prior research focused on the inter-organizational relationship between these two variables. Missing however is a focus on a straightforward relationship between trust and control. Second, the literature on trust and control showed that both these variables are essential to promote alliances between partners and managers need to balance both of them in order to reach their organizational goals, but little attention has been paid on whether control may be considered or not a determinant of trust, particularly with reference to the relationship between competitors. Finally, we draw empirical conclusions about the relationship that exists between control, in the form of surveillance and trust in the tourism industry when competitors coopete with each other. By confirming the existence of a cause- effect relationship between surveillance and trust, we are able to suggest managers to keep considering both trust and surveillance when they have to implement mechanisms to manage relationships and cope with opportunism.

The influence of parents on youth occupational choices was examined in this work. In particular the aim of this analysis was to find out whether or not there is a link between parents’ occupation and education and the willingness of their children (in childhood but also in first adulthood) to become entrepreneurs. In order to assess the existence of significant associations between these categorical variables (the willingness to become an entrepreneur and parents’ occupation and education) in a
completely different scenario than in the past, where children are more informed and value more the self-direction in taking decisions about their vocational development, I ran some nonparametric tests on a sample of data (N = 984) of high school students and university students from the city of
Varese. At first, the sample was analyzed as an entire entity then, in order to understand if results changed accordingly to gender and to the level of education, different youth categories were identified: male and female and high school students and university students. The results obtained highlighted the potential role of fathers’ influence on youth decision to become an entrepreneur.

Trust is considered by many as a central issue that enables organizations to interact with each other, increasing the level of confidence, and the success of cooperation between them. Many authors studied the role of trust in enabling superior cooperative performance but what it is still missing is a consensus about the role of trust in enabling organizational success. Evidence of the fact that trust pays off also from an organizational point of view is essential in order to make managers invest on mechanisms that increase trust, instead of behaving opportunistically, especially when they are involved in relationships with other competitors. Organizations need to know that when they coopete with other organizations they do it also on the assumption that they rely on trust, which increase assurance of success for both the relationship with others, and the organizations itself. When this explicative power for organizations does not exist it is no sense to invest in developing a relationship based on trust. With this paper, by focusing on the relationship between competitors in the tourism industry, we underline that trust increases organizational success, that it pays off and it is valuable investing on it also from the organizational point of view. In addition to this we confirm that usually the relationship between trust and organizational success depends on the existence of a certain level of opportunism. The findings enabled us to conclude that managers need to invest in procedures that support and develop trust, avoiding to behave opportunistically, especially in the current economic scenario, where uncertainty prevails, and new strategies, such as coopetition between partners, are necessary to succeed.