Il turismo sociale: la situazione attuale e le prospettive di sviluppo.

In this paper we dealt with social tourism trying to concentrate mainly on its quantitative aspects. However, once we found a working definition for the analysis of this phenomenon (identifying the key players in its supply and demand, and outlining its main features in common and in disagreement with other types of tourism), the lack of sufficiently informative databanks clearly emerged. Then, in order to characterize the phenomenon and its evolution we analyzed several case studies, describing particularly interesting examples of social tourism around the world. Our analysis indicates the need to develop a richer quantitative information than the existing one, especially if policy evaluation exercises must be undertaken. Surveys are needed that can identify the groups currently excluded from tourism. Besides, policies must be analyzed considering their effects on the treated subjects vis-à-vis control (nontreated) groups.