An analysis of diaspora tourism experience

The Ancestral tourism (known also as root tourism, return tourism or genealogic tourism) is the tourism produced by Italians residing abroad or by their descendants, to rediscover origins and family stories, territories of origin, cultural traditions or simply to review places and people. Ancestral tourism is “any visit which might be partly or wholly motivated by a need to connect or reconnect with an individual’s ancestral past” (Murdy S., Alexander M. and Bryce D., 2018). The return to the home country is a phenomenon that has always existed in the history of migration, but only recently, and only in some countries, it has been defined as a tourism experience different from the others and worthy of being valued and encouraged. The tourist-destination relationship in diaspora tourism is unique, because tourists with different origins often feel connected to the people, the culture and the heritage of the destination before actually visiting the place. Family tourism is widely consolidated in the USA, Brazil and Argentina. It is very common in Central European countries (especially Ireland and Scotland) whereWorldWar II caused mass migration. According to CISET (Centro Internazionale di Studi dell’Economia Turistica) of Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, the Ancestral tourism is a growing area, also in Italy due the migratory flows. Indeed, Italians have always been, and remain today emigrant people who have sought fortune or new job opportunities abroad. According to the updated data released by the Migrantes Foundation, in absolute terms, AIRE members are 5.288.281. From 2006 to 2019 Italian mobility increased by +70,2% passing, in absolute terms, from just over 3.1 million AIRE members to almost 5.3 million. Nearly half of Italian registered in AIRE are originally from Southern Italy (48.9%, of which 32.0% from the South and 16.9% from the Islands); 35.5% come from Northern Italy (18.0% from the North-West and 17.5% from the North-East) and 15.6% from the Center. More than the half (51.5%) are enrolled in AIRE for expatriation, but the growth in enrolments by birth continues (39.7%). Citizens acquisition are the 3,4%, re-registration for unavailability 4.0%. the 43.9% have been subscribed/registered for 15 years, the 20,7% for less than 5 years. Over 2,8 million (54,3%) live in Europe, over 2,1 million (40,2%) in America. More specifically the two continental areas more interested in the presence of Italians residents are European Union (41,6%) and Central South America (32,4%). The most consistent communities are in Argentina (almost 843 thousand), Germany (just over 764 thousand), Switzerland (623 thousand), Brazil (447 thousand), France (442 thousand), United Kingdom (327 thousand) and USA (272 thousand) (Source: Migrantes Foundation). When referring to genealogical tourismof Italian immigrant it is appropriate to distinguish between emigrants in neighbouring countries, who can easily return to Italy even several times in a year, and those overseas, who on the contrary havemore difficulties. Very often they are children and grandchildren of Italian emigrants who out of curiosity to know the places that gave birth to their ancestors (DeMarchi eMingotto, 2016, Ferrari e Nicotera, 2017). In accordance with the study conducted by Enit (Tourism National Agency, 2018) in four American countries (United States, Canada, Brazil and Argentina) in 2017 the “return tourism” in Italy reached a total of 670 thousand tourists for a total expenditure of 644 million euros, considering only the “visit to relatives, family and friends” reason; the current motivation is the second that induce American tourists to visit our country. The Ancestral tourism has not been considered yet as source of investment not even by Italian scientific research. This is also proved by the almost total absence of official statistics; the only estimates are constituted by the data presented by Enit within the report which focus on the “return tourism”. One aspect that explains how in Italy this type of tourism even if widespread, is a phenomenon that is not adequately defined. At an international level, several authors deal with that topic. Among the others Bryce et al. (2017) who studied this form of tourism in Scotland, Li and McKercher have faced the subject investigating the behaviour of Chinese immigrants in north America, whileW.-J. Huang et al. (2018) confronted different generation of Chinese immigrants in relation to the link with the homeland, the commitment to the hometown and to the motivation of the “return tourism”. Several authors have studied the relationship tourism-destination in the Diaspora tourism of second or third generation, showing how it is quite complex, because the Diaspora members generally have emotional, familiar, cultural and social connection with the destination that they are visiting (Andit P. 2020; Pelliccia, 2018; Lulle et al., 2019; Séraphin, 2019). They may know family stories or know the cultural traditions related to the homeland, but generally they have weaker ties and do not have their individual memories of past times. At the same time, they can experience loyalty to their parents’ homeland based on an inherited emotional attachment or sense of obligation (Huang et al., 2015, p. 2). The aim of this research is to describe and analyze the reasons, experiences and satisfaction level of ancestral tourists to Sicily in order to identify any homogeneous groups and be able to undertake a more specific and targeted development action in this sector. For this purpose, a survey was conducted on a sample of tourists who have an ancestry bond with Sicily. The work is structured as follows: in the next paragraph the statistical methodology will be illustrated, in the third paragraph the main results will be presented, finally in the fourth paragraph some conclusive reflections and possible future developments will be presented.