Exploring the interdependences between High Speed Rail systems and tourism: Some evidence from Italy

This paper highlights the expected impacts of the High Speed/High Capacity Rail project in Italy on tourism. An empirical analysis has been carried out with the aid of a database containing information both on tourism and transport for 77 Italian municipalities, during the 2006-2013 period. The specification of a panel model simultaneously considering the effects on all the municipalities has been proposed. The main results of the analysis show that the impacts of HSR on the number of Italian visitors and the number of nights spent at destination are positive in all the municipalities served by HSR. Moreover an airport traffic model specification has been proposed as well in order to show the impact of plane on Italian tourists mode choices.