Tourism as a Resource of Economic Development. Legislative Measures, local Situations, Accomodation capacity and Tourist Flows in italy in the "Inter-War Years"

It was in the period between the end of the First World War and the beginning of the Second that tourism at last began to be considered as having a significant role to play in the economy, so much so that a number of political and economic measures were taken to develop and organise the “travel industry”. Indeed, a growing awareness of the economic rent which Italy had enjoyed up to the First World War, but also of the threat now coming from other emerging countries and the growth of big hotel and transport companies was to lead to a different approach to tourism. The years between 1922 and 1943 were marked by a definite cyclical trend. They began with a period of inflation that was blocked in 1926 by the stabilization of the lira and followed by the international crisis of 1929, which was eventually overcome with great difficulty. Autarky and a war economy were then pursued before the system finally collapsed (Zamagni 1990. P. 313). In Italy tourism became politically and economically important after responsibility for it was handed over to the Ministry for the Press and Propaganda. In fact, the Royal Decrees of November 21, 1934 no. 1851 and December 3, 1934 no. 1925 transferred the functions of the Commission for Tourism to the minister and created a new statute for Enit, the national tourist authority. These measures represented the logical continuation of a policy that had actually set up the Commission and intended to concentrate all state tourist activities under the management of a single coordinating body and thus produce ““a more compact and efficient strategy of defence and success”. This paper will discuss the measures, projects and activities of these years and also , it intends to highlight those aspects of tourism which have so far been given little consideration, but are believed to have made an important contribution to the history of the industry in this period, namely the promotion of tourism in the coloniese compact and efficient strategy of defence and success”