Roots tourism in the south of Italy: the role of the municipalities

In this chapter the main results of a quantitative survey that was conducted by all the municipalities in the regions of Calabria and Puglia are presented. The goal is to more thoroughly understand the behaviours and levels of awareness of the local administrations in reference to the phenomenon of roots tourism. The survey is exploratory and preliminary in nature. It represents the basis for future research and aims to observe the municipal representatives' perceptions and knowledge with reference to roots tourism and to its potential for the development of the territories. The questionnaire's responses are based on the opinion of the public administrations and are not, therefore, objective infomation and data, but, on the contrary, they are subjective viewpoints. However, they provide useful information for reaching the survey's objective. It has already been stated how it is crucial that Italy aims for, like other nations, roots tourism, by adopting adeguate strategies and programs. Together with the national government, even the local government should plan political tools to aspire to promote the increase in roots tourism in addition to implementing educational, exchanges and hospitality programs for the members of the community who have emigrated and their descendants. There are numerous initiatives that the town administrations can undertake in order to nurture the form of tourism in consideration and to expand the level of satisfaction of the ancestral tourists. It is therefore advantageous to know the situazion in some of the territories, in order to determine if the phenomenon has been unerstood in all its potentiality, how much attention the local administrations dedicate to it, what efforts are made so that the flow of roots tourists increases and if the tourist segment in consideration is regarded a primary target or not. For this reason the decision was made to dedicate a survey for the municipalities of the two regions thet have been greatly interested in the past and present migratory phenomena.