A methodology and algorithms for an optimalidentification of Tourist Local Systems

In last years, despite the emphasis on the importance of tourism as a leadingindustry in the development of a country’s economy, there is a lack of criteria andmethodologies for the identification, the promotion and the governance of TourismLocal Systems (TLS). Moreover, nowadays an important debate is more and moreemerging on the sustainable tourism development which involve three interconnectedaspects: environmental, socio-cultural and economic.To this end, in this paper, a rigorous mathematical model is proposed for the optimalidentification and dimensioning of TLS.The model here presented consists of a two stage methodology: at first, all the factorsthat characterize a geographic area to be a Tourist Local System are examined.By these factors and their proper quantification all the territorial units consideredare hierarchy ordered. This is useful either for reducing considerably the number ofall the admissible solutions or in terms of possible financing plans, political actionsand socio-economic targets.Afterward, all the admissible TLS are generated through an algorithm (ALGOTLS)and finally the optimization problem is solved by means of a decision tree approachand the dynamic programming technique (ALGOTT).