Abstract

Increased attention has recently been paid to the key role of tourism in economic development; research in this area, however, tends to focus on national tourism. This paper examines the dynamic relationship between tourism and economic development in 20 NUTS-2 regions of Italy between 2000 and 2019 using a symbolic time series analysis. Overall, a limited mobility of regions is observed between the distinct regimes during the analyzed period, suggesting the stability of these variables. The study results suggest that the relationship between tourism and economic development differs in the three identified groups of regions