Interactions Between Sea Resorts and Coastal Roads in a Sustainable Tourism Framework

Purpose. The development of the tourist resorts in the maritime European mainland is especially linked to their road accessibility. In the Italian northern Adriatic, to the disadvantage of the marshy backlands contrasts a rich hinterland that goes from Lombardy to Bavaria and Austria with its neighboring countries. The focus of the paper is the evolution of the road network in the last hundred years as cause and effect of coastal development. The exemplar segment between Venice (excluded) and Grado is regarded as paradigmatic. Methodology Dynamic programming with references to the game theory (especially prisoner's dilemma) is a tool that explains the presence of a few moments of frantic development (fifties and sixties of last century) and moments of stasis. Coastal roads seem to play a leading role. Findings Five main sea-resorts and their hotel facilities are analyzed along 100 years, comparing their evolution with communication facilities. Contributions. Some suggestions leading to integration rather than competition are provided. Integration should not be based only on land connection but should also reset the former lagoon and sea network of public communication, in view of a sustainable touris