The impact of related variety on tourist destinations. An analysis of tourist firms clustering

The purpose of this chapter is to explore the factors behind the clustering of tourist firms and to analyse the reasons for the formation of clusters in tourist destinations. Recent studies exploring the growth of destinations have suggested that the presence of clusters is the main reason for their competitiveness. The chapter contributes to this line of research by applying an analysis model to the factors underlying the clustering of firms in tourist destinations in Italy. The study analyses the evolution of tourist destinations over a decade using spatial analysis and by applying the related-variety approach to the phenomenon of clustering. The results show that related variety is an important factor in the clustering of tourist firms, emphasising that the existence of groups of related tourist activities in a particular destination is essential for the destination’s development and competitiveness.