Der Einzelhandel im Stadtzentrum Florenz zwischen touristischem Druck und ausländischer Unternehmerschaft

The study describes the consequences of demographic and functional decline and of touristic pressure on retail structures of the ancient city centre of Florence. It stresses the ongoing assimilation of retail landscape as consequence of touristic demand and of substitution of old historical shops by international chains. This process threatens in the long run the specific identity of the city and thus risks to diminish its touristic attraction. Moreover the article discusses the possibilities to reduce this risk of losing local identity by developing the potentiality of new immigrant entrepreneurship in retail business. A new kind of public policy seems necessary in order to counterbalance the handicaps of immigrant entrepreneurs compared with Italians. It seems important to develop new policies which concentrate public resources specifically on some innovative categories of entrepreneurs among which the - compared to the Italians – younger and better educated foreign shop holders.