Author: Adele Camerini

  Date: 11-06-2025

 

Roots tourism is defined as that particular tourism “generated by migrants who go on vacation in their country of origin or by their descendants who wish to visit and learn about their family’s homeland” (De Marchi and Mingotto, 2016). This particular group of tourists has recently intrigued scholars as a category in its own right, gaining increasing consideration over the past decade.

The decision to focus the research topic on this specific group of tourists is twofold. Firstly, 2024 has been declared the Year of Roots Tourism by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation. This initiative included the creation of ad hoc activities for root tourists, such as ad hoc itineraries throughout the country, dedicated websites (such as Italea.com) and contacts of genealogists for those who want to explore their Italian origins and family history. Secondly, the data collected refers to a time period (2022-2024) in which, for the first time since the pandemic, the tourism sector was no longer affected by Covid-19 consequences. The decision to consider the U.S. tourists market was motivated by two main reasons: U.S. tourists represent the leading market for Italy in terms of total expenditures, making them crucial to the tourism sector, and, in addition, an estimated 16 million Americans are descendants of Italian immigrants, constituting a significant pool of potential root tourists. Considering, then, the current growing migration trends to the United States, Italian Americans will continue to be an important presence in the country.

After conducting extensive research and analysis of the existing literature on root tourism, its benefits, connections with other tourism phenomena, the history of Italian emigration, and the determinants of tourist spending and tourist behavior, a gap in the literature was identified. Existing studies on root tourism tend to view this phenomenon as isolated, without relating it to other types of tourism or comparing it to non-roots tourists. This failure to compare limits the understanding of the phenomenon to simply listing the characteristics of root tourists, without bringing out significant differences or commonalities.

The gap identification led to the formulation of the research questions: are there significant differences between italodiscending and non-italodiscending U.S. tourists during a trip to Italy (before, during and after) in terms of:

• Number of trips and length of stay?
• Travel characteristics, expenses, and future behaviors?
• Types of tourists? Purpose of the trip and activities undertaken?

To answer these questions, an online survey was conducted for U.S. tourists who had visited Italy between 2022 and 2024. The survey was structured to obtain two distinct groups of respondents according to the criterion of italodiscendence. The 29 questions were divided into 3 main blocks: travel characteristics (pre, during, and post), respondent’s personal characteristics and travel habits, demographics, and, for the italodiscendants group, an additional block consisting of 12 questions designed to learn more about this particular segment. The survey was distributed mainly through social media and by directly approaching U.S. tourists in Italy, with 208 valid responses obtained.

Initial statistical-descriptive analyses conducted on the dataset revealed the following main characteristics: respondents were evenly distributed between italodiscendants and non italodescendants U.S. citizens, with a predominance of female respondents (65%) belonging to Generation Z (41%). The sample was well educated, with at least 84 percent of respondents holding a bachelor’s degree, and relatively affluent, with 30 percent of respondents having an annual income above $130,000. Below are the complete graphs:

Subsequently, through the implementation of t-tests, nonparametric tests (comparison of medians) and ANOVA tests, significant differences emerged, described from the perspective of the italodiscending segment. Italian American tourists reported a greater degree of emotional attachment to Italy, a greater willingness to recommend a trip to Italy, and a greater likelihood of making another trip to Italy in the future despite the fact that, on average, they had already made more trips to Italy. They also stayed longer on average, visited southern regions more, and participated less in activities that could be considered belonging to mass tourism, such as food and wine activities. This is most likely due to their familiarity with Italian culture. Below are the values obtained expressed from the perspective of the Italian American segment:

In addition, the significance of the ANOVA test implemented to test for the existence of a moderating effect of Italodiscendence on multiple variables gave evidence that is able to moderate the effect that the number of trips made to Italy has on the length of stay considered. Specifically, Italian Americans tend to stay longer during their first trip (24 days > 14 days) and from their fourth trip onward (16 days > 14 days), while they tend to stay less during their second and third trips (15 days < 17 days) in comparison with their non-Italian-descended compatriots:

Afterwards, through a Cluster Analysis implemented with the purpose of checking for subgroups, the sample was divided into four clusters. The variables included in the analysis, 7, were the result of two previous Factor Analysis implemented to reduce the 8 variables concerning the purpose of the trip and the 7 variables concerning the respondent’s personality traits.

After profiling, only one of the four clusters turned out to be predominantly composed of italodiscending respondents and, at the same time, presenting a concentration of individuals whose characteristics turned out to be the most sustainable, such as a greater tendency to visit rural areas, a greater propensity to want to learn Italian and, finally, greater sustainability in personal habits. The concentration of the characteristics just listed in the Italian-descending cluster confirms the results obtained in the existing literature on root tourists, according to which root tourists present more sustainable habits and behaviors.

As for the other clusters, all of which are of non-italodiscending prevalence, a summary below:

The final analyses performed on the sample were three regressions. The first, a multiple linear regression, revealed how italodiscendence did not significantly affect total per capita expenditures. Nevertheless, when considering the sample divided into the clusters, an ANOVA test revealed, on the other hand, how italodiscendence has a moderating effect on per capita daily expenditures within the clusters:

As evident from the graph, italodiscendants in clusters 2 and 3 (sustainable tourists and mass tourists) tended to spend more than non-italodiscendants belonging to the same cluster (respectively, a difference of +$60 per day and +$110 per day) while italodiscendants belonging to clusters 1 and 4 (relaxation seekers and social media addicts) tended to spend less than non italodiscendants belonging to the same cluster (respectively, a difference of -$70 per day and -$55 per day).

The second regression, an ordinal logistic regression, on the other hand, demonstrated the significance of italodiscendence on self-reported willingness to pay for a future trip to Italy: italodiscendents declared themselves less willing to pay, probably due to the greater frequency with which they tend to visit our country and the duration of their visits.

Finally, the last regression, a multinomial logistic, was implemented to analyze the Italian descendant segment in more detail and, specifically, to test what conditions prompted them to visit their places of origin. The likelihood of having visited one’s family’s places of origin is positively correlated with the degree of affective attachment to Italy, the number of trips made, and the closeness of the closest Italian relative: the greater the degree of affective attachment, the greater the number of times the respondent has been to Italy, and the lower the degree of kinship with the Italian descendant, the greater the likelihood of having visited the places of one’s origins. Despite this, 99% of respondents who had never visited these places said they were willing to return to Italy with the purpose of visiting them.

The research findings gave rise to several implications.
From an academic point of view, the study demonstrates the existence of significant behavioral differences between Italian-descendant and non-Italian-descendant U.S. tourists, suggesting a new way of analyzing root tourists by comparing them to their non-Italian-descendant compatriots in order to ascertain points of contact and differences, the latter to be used in tailoring proposals. From a management perspective, the involvement of various stakeholders in the implementation of a coordinated national plan or shared guidelines would ensure benefits for all parties involved. In addition, marketing activities should be strengthened with the aim of increasing awareness of activities dedicated to roots tourists, considering that 67 percent of Italian Americans surveyed said they were unaware of these offerings.

Although the research provides valuable insights for the understanding and study of the phenomenon analyzed, its results may not be generalizable to other populations given the determinants behind it, such as the choice of the United States as a target. In addition, an enlargement of the sample might reveal additional differences which, due to the limited number of respondents, might not have been detected. The present study provides interesting insights for future research, which could replicate the study in other countries to test its generalizability, or focus on a smaller geographic area, testing regional differences. In addition, repeating the study a few years later could highlight how tourists’ behaviors vary, which behaviors depend on generations, and which are independent of the advance of time.

In conclusion, among U.S. tourists who visited our country from 2022 to 2024 there are significant differences in behavior depending on the Italian origin of the respondent, giving rise to two groups of tourists that can, in certain situations, be treated as independent. Understanding the phenomenon of root tourism will prove to be increasingly relevant given the growing need to develop tourism that is more sustainable and less impactful to the host country, characteristics belonging “by nature” to the root tourist.