The economic impact of nautical tourism: an Italian Experience on Lake Garda

The research aims at estimating the tourist and economic impact resulting from the requalification of Bardolino marina, a small town on the biggest Italian lake in the province of Verona. The research question we intended to answer is whether the building of a new port could determine an improvement in terms of positive economic impact for Bardolino tourism and trading operators. The secondary research defined the framework of nautical activities and ancillary services in Bardolino. The primary quantitative survey was addressed to two different targets: the buoy and boat berth holders and the tourism and trading operators of Bardolino. The data collected, analyzed with SPSS 13.0, allowed to determine an esteem of the real and potential tourist per capita expenditure. In addition, it was possible to identify five scenarios, determined on the basis of the potential increase of tourist arrivals. By multiplying the tourist per capita expenditure with the increase of potential arrivals, it was possible to determine that the economic impact resulting from the requalification of Bardolino marina would improve from 8.30% to 13.79%