Le abitazioni di vacanza nelle valli alpine. Implicazioni sulle destinazioni turistiche

Holiday houses are a form of accommodation widely used in Italy, either in the form of secondary home, either in the form of house for rent. They arewidespread in the alpine valleys, especially in places close to big urban areas. The majority of them are rarely used. This paper provides an overview on the development of holiday houses in Italy and reports the results of an experiment to calculate the usage rate in some mountain destinations in the valleys of Bergamo Department, that is estimated around 60-80 days per year. On the basis of these results, the effects of the presence of holiday houses on the development of destinations are shown. In the places with a high concentration of such accommodations there is a large number of not productive beds in the destination (cold beds) with the result of a decrease in tourist demand for commercial, recreational and complementary services, determining a decline of the destination. The resumption of development of the destination could be connected to new methods of management, marketing and trading of the holiday houses whom are rented.