THE MULTIPLE COUNTING OF TOURISTS IN SICILY AND THE ANALYSIS OF INTRA-REGIONAL TOURIST FLOWS

Tourist arrivals are often wrongly interpreted as the number of tourists. The non-agreement between arrivals and tourists (Parroco and Vaccina, 2006) produces a large overestimation of the number of tourists really present at the destinations (tourists replication), so determining heavy consequences on economic and territorial planning. In order to get a first estimate of replications and to analyse the typical tourist tours throughout Sicily, in summer 2005 a census research was made on 8.883 tourists intercepted at 13 hotels in Cefalù, a well-known bathing resort in the Northern coast of Sicily (Italy).