Measuring Territorial Specialization in Tourism Sector: The Basilicata Region Case Study

Abstract

From the beginning of the 21^st century, following major European and global initiatives such as the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (2005) [1, 2] and The Economics of Ecosystem and Biodiversity [3], the idea that Ecosystem services could be used as a decision support tool, it gained considerable importance in several fields: from economy to public policy, from territorial planning to environmental assessment. This research is part of the methodological framework of an important strategic reference: the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, and international research project which rank the ecosystem services to identify the state of the latter, accessing the consequences of ecosystem changes on human well-being. According to the MA [1], they are grouped into four categories: supplying services (food and fiber production, water production, biological and cosmetics production etc.), regulation services (maintenance of the air quality, climate regulation, flood regulation, erosion or drought, pollination, water purification, etc.), cultural services (cultural diversity, recreational or spiritual services, aesthetic values, ecotourism etc.), and support services (carbon sequestration, soil formation, etc.). This classification in the most widespread and used in ecosystem studies because is easy to understand its logic and it can define fixed categories. Starting from this classification, the work done contributes to build interpretative models for the evaluation of a relevant part of the fourth class of ecosystem services: the territorial tourism attractiveness.