The Outbound Chinese Tourism to Italy: The New Graduates' Generation

Cultural and economic exchanges between Italy and China are under constant development. Even though Italy is considered as one of the main world tourism destinations, it currently does not attract a significant share of outbound Chinese tourism if compared both to world competitors-such as Australia and the United States-and to other European countries, such as Germany, France, and the UK. The reasons for this situation are manifold and can be substantially grouped according to objective reasons (such as geographical distance, transfer times, costs compared with individual and familiar spending capability, bureaucratic formalities) and subjective ones (depending on tourists' interests, expectations, behaviors, trip planning modalities, and travel group composition). Comprehension of travel motivations represents a fundamental support to the identification of strategic guidelines for both national tourism policies and individual operators because they are particularly relevant to the choice of a destination. This article has a clear operative aim: to fill the existing informative gap by providing policy makers and tourism operators with suggestions on how to increase outbound Chinese tourism flows toward Italy, with particular attention to the diversification of demand and supply.