L’accessibilità turistica nel Sud Italia durante la pandemia da COVID-19: un caso di studio

Reaching tourist destinations in a fast and sustainable way remains an open topic in the regions of Southern Italy. These regions are characterized by important seasonal tourist flows, especially in the summer period. The main transport mean used by tourists and residents is the car, that increase congestion and urban pollution. This problem is even more pronounced for the COVID-19 pandemic which has seen an increase in personal car usage. In fact, for the pandemic and the people movement restrictions (i.e., green pass), even more tourists will spend their holidays in Italian tourist destinations. The problem is that the transport service is not suitable to meet the whole demand and multimodal transport services could solve part of the problem. This article intends to detect the multimodal transport services activated for the 67 coastal cities of the Apulia region. In the last years, these cities welcome more than 84% of Apulian’s tourists. For each city, we map the public transport service supply, and we calculate the average travel times by train, bus, private car and bicycle, also highlighting the travel times and opportunities in case of intermodal alternatives. As origins of the trip, we consider the main regional transport infrastructures: airports, ports and major stations. In this paper, we collect and analyze such detailed and updated information on the accessibility level and the transport system characteristics of the Apulian region during the COVID-19 pandemic. Furthermore, we analyze the main policies developed during the years and we provide several policy suggestions and green strategies that can improve sustainable urban accessibility. This paper should be of interest to local transport manager and regional policymakers.