Can High Speed Rail Foster the Choice of Destination for Tourism Purpose?

AbstractMarketing decisions and strategic planning of tourism provisions require knowledge of factors affecting this choice and type of trips and forecast of tourism flows in the short and long term. It is interesting to know how holidaymakers select their holiday destinations and investigate which factors are determining their choices. Indeed the objective of this paper is to analyze the role of High Speed Rail systems in this choice. A survey was carried out in Paris in October 2012, tourists were interviewed close to the Eiffel Tower, Paris Lyon Central Train Station and Notre-Dame Cathedral. The results will be compared with a previous survey employed in Rome in April 2012. The scope here is providing an answer to the questions: are tourists influenced by the presence of High Speed Rail in choosing Paris or Rome for their holidays? Does High Speed Rail influence the probability of visiting other served cities and returning to Paris or to Rome? The research suggests that several factors (the presence of architectural sites, the quality of promotion of the destination itself, the presence of events) influence the choice of a tourist. It also shows that the HSR system has affected the choice of Paris and Rome differently