The role of the Cassa per il Mezzogiorno in developing tourism sector

Since 1950, the «Cassa per il Mezzogiorno» has been the instrument throughwhich the Italian government sought to intervene organically in order to redressthe dualism present in the national economy. The aim of the «extraordinary intervention» carried out by the Cassa was to stimulate economic and social progressin Southern Italy. On the basis of this general purpose, a number of studieshave assessed the outcomes of that extraordinary intervention, ranging fromthose focusing strictly on financial, social as well as economic aspects. Amongthese latter, those examining the variations of certain macro-economic indicesconcluded that from the early 1950s onwards, the dualism present in the countrydid indeed decrease, although not to a significant degree. This paper attempts tocontribute to an assessment of the work of the Cassa adopting a different perspective,that is examining the results achieved in a particular sector - the developmentof the tourism sector. In the light of the considerations illustrated, thereis no doubt that Southern Italy did indeed improve its relative position with regardto the rest of Italy, in terms of the most significant tourism sector indices.With regard to supply and demand, specific indices have shown over time variationswhich narrowed the country-wide gap existing when the Cassa first beganits interventions.