The determinants of tourist satisfaction along Francigena route in Tuscany

Religious tourism is an important economic sector in Italy. In general, previous studies stressed that the pilgrims are sensitive to the religious aspects and historic and artistic heritage. Less importance assumes the tradition of ancient and pilgrim routes. Despite the increasing numbers of the visitors, statistics about numbers, interests and profiles of them is sporadic or incomplete. The main concern is that a large part of travellers choose informal hospitality structures thus official statistics are not able to gather data adequately. During the last decades, the religious tourism sector is becoming segmented, according to multi dimension factors such as the availability and the quality of cultural and environmental elements in the visiting areas. This evolution of tourism industry is an opportunity for diversify the recreational experience over demand of mass tourism. This paper aims to estimate the extent of the phenomenon related to traveling along the pilgrim route using as case study the Francigena route in its Tuscan part. The study also examines the profiles of the users trying to understand their motivations and perception of the quality of their experience. The study is carried out through a direct survey in some accommodation facilities. A face-to-face questionnaire was administrated to 350 pilgrims during the spring-summer 2014. Particularly important is the implementation of statistical tool based on CUB model. This model assesses the degree of satisfaction of the tourist experience related to multiple dimensions (quality of landscape, facilities, hospitality, etc.) and identifies the determinants of this degree of satisfaction The final objective is to identify strengths and areas of intervention to foster this segment of religious tourism. The quantitative evaluation of the tourism phenomenon and an analysis of the perception of the quality level of services in the area enjoyed by pilgrims let to design better promotion campaign and identify innovations to increase tourist satisfactions.