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The Adriatic Territory

Historical overview, landscape geography, economic, legal and artistic aspects

by Giuseppe de Vergottini (Volume editor) Valeria Piergigli (Volume editor) Ivan Russo (Volume editor)
©2017 Edited Collection 304 Pages

Summary

This volume presents a multidisciplinary overview of the factors of integration between the two shores of the Adriatic sea. The research promoted by the "Coordinamento Adriatico" is dedicated to a range of problems chronologically anchored to modernity and contemporaneity. The study focuses on the situation of the upper Adriatic with particular attention to the intellectual, political, economic, institutional, legal, administrative and artistic expressions of life.

Table Of Contents

  • Cover
  • Title
  • Copyright
  • About the author
  • About the book
  • This eBook can be cited
  • Table of Contents
  • The Adriatic Territory: Historical overview, landscape geography, economic, legal and artistic aspects (Giuseppe de Vergottini, Valeria Piergigli and Ivan Russo)
  • Online demand and supply for the industry tourism in the Adriatic region (Ilenia Confente)
  • Logistics infrastructures and integration between ports (Ivan Russo)
  • Evolution of the functions and port structures in the territory of Istria and Dalmatia, the development of ports and urban centers of the Adriatic Sea (Emanuele Bugli)
  • History, archaeology and modern cities along the coast. Knowing to conserve and enhance (Claudia Tinazzi)
  • The protection of cultural heritage in the northern Adriatic. Italian and Croatian legal order (Guglielmo Cevolin)
  • Protection of minority identities and territory. From the autonomy claims to secession: the case of Kosovo (Valeria Piergigli)
  • Profiles of the protection of the environment and landscape in the planning regarding the energy production facilities from renewable sources (Antonio Bartolini and Serenella Pieroni)
  • The system of incentives into the Italian and Croatian variations: Growing problems and prospects (Davide Lo Presti)
  • The Imperial Sea. Serenissima, the Ottoman Empire and the transformation of the Adriatic space (1453–1503) (Gastone Breccia)
  • Forms of land’s government in the Age of Restoration. The case of the Kingdom of Illyria (Giorgio Federico Siboni)
  • Port, emporium and free port: the institutions and rights in the culture of Trieste between the eighteenth and nineteenth century (Riccardo Ferrante)
  • The question of Trieste and the vote of June 2, 1946: Also a Constitutional Problem (Davide Rossi)

← 6 | 7 →

The Adriatic Territory: Historical overview, landscape geography, economic, legal and artistic aspects

The “territory” has undergone a radical transformation over the past few decades, becoming, considering dated, simplistic visions limited only to “empirical” aspects, an ever-more complex concept, distinguished by a distinctly relational character. Gaining movement from this modern knowledge, this study yearns for the understanding of a specific territory, that of the Adriatic, significantly heterogeneous and marked by clear events in a succession of ethnic groups and statehoods.

This is about a story, the “Adriatic” one, already of great interest at first glance considering the events concerning the name of this sea, which has always marked the history of these lands. A sea, the Adriatic, which in the Pre-Classic Period was considered merely a part of the Ionian, acquiring its own dignity starting only from the Roman Republican Period. Later, during the Middle Ages, the Venetians re-baptized the entire Adriatic with the name “The Gulf of Venice”. This name then experienced a vast popularization, but the sea nevertheless always maintained its original name; a few Adriatic ports which Serenissima was not able to make fall under its control remained faithful.

Other significant indicators of the uniqueness of the Adriatic’s story emerge from the complicated sequence of the state structure, characterized by an articulated succession from periods of political unity and moments of widespread fragmentation. In fact, from the beginning up to recent centuries, this area was characterized by a push for the formation of national states—and therefore by a virulent presence of opposed nationalisms—followed, in the second half of the last century, by the establishment of a new unifying and federative type association, made real by the recent actions of the European Union, verging on a grouping of European populations in respect to the background of the cultural, historical and political traditions of the different territories.

In a panorama such as that of the Adriatic, characterized by strong elements of discontinuity—able to result in genuine conflicts—the recognition, rediscovering and exploitation of multiple elements of compatibility and integration is natural. It concerns a rather complex and long-favored method, however, from the historical events of recent decades: the failure of the ideological juxtapositions of the Cold War, the acknowledgement of the absurdity of the founding conditions of the inter-ethnic conflicts that tormented the Balkans in the nineties, together with ← 7 | 8 → the gradual realization of the attractiveness of the common European market in economically weak areas, have made interests for the exploitation of broad and multiple forms of integration stronger, more concrete and more believable. In this renewed context, the geopolitical area that faces the Adriatic Sea was almost “forced” by the effects of its structure to take into account the existence of a common space centered precisely on that sea, which seems to unite more than separate its extraordinary shores, returning to the footprints of its ancestors, who as far back as Classical Roman and Byzantine times had considered the lands of the upper Adriatic an extraordinary unicum of lands and peoples.

Starting from this premise, the research promoted by the Coordinamento Adriatico Association has proposed the goal of studying and verifying the factors of integration present between the two shores, covering diverse itineraries relating to the different human and social sciences. Under the intentions of the creators, this aim has been pursued relying on a fundamental rule: the will not to fall into the easy rhetorical conventions of Europeanism, in the knowledge of the current continued importance of the conventional principle of sovereignty often influenced by identity references that cause the reemergence of an experience already characterized today by turbulent nationalisms1.

Entering into more specific aspects, as already evident by an initial analysis of the work structure, it can be seen that the project has been articulated into thematic areas singularly dedicated to a range of problems, chronologically anchored to modernity and contemporaneity and thematically relative to the situation of the upper Adriatic, with particular attention to the intellectual, political, economic, institutional, legal, administrative and artistic expressions of life. The study of the Adriatic culture and traditions lends itself to a naturally multidisciplinary approach, which is considered useful to confront – primarily from a historical perspective – the complex events experienced by the current Friuli Venezia Giulia and by the other regions of the upper Adriatic. These events were due to border changes, as well as notable political and connected ethnic changes, at a distance of a few years from the consolidation of these changes, and today appear as an important and urgent matter in the study of the culture of the territory. ← 8 | 9 →

In conclusion, the structured insights produced in the research environment fall fully within the aims of cultural updating promoted by the Coordinamento Adriatico Association, which, we would like to reiterate, has been striving for more than twenty years2 with studies and publications aimed at divulging the events of the eastern border and the reinsertion of the historical and artistic patrimony of Istria, Fiumano and Dalmatia in the cultural context of the Italian nation. This is all through initiatives in which a lot of importance was given to the research conducted with the aim of bringing back strictly national profiles to a comparative frame that remembers the overall territorial dimensions of the Adriatic area.

We are grateful to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministero degli Affari Esteri and to the Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities and Tourism in accordance with the law n. 191/2009 for providing financial support to this project.

Finally, our sincere thanks are extended to all scholars that contributed to helping us published the book.

July, 2016

Giuseppe de Vergottini (University of Bologna)
Valeria Piergigli (University of Siena)
Ivan Russo (University of Verona) ← 9 | 10 →


1 In this regard we allow ourselves to reference two works on “Fenomenologia di una macro regione. Sviluppi economici, mutamenti giuridici ed evoluzioni istituzionali nell’Alto Adriatico tra età moderna e contemporanea”, vol. I, Percorsi storici e storico-giuridici, by G. de Vergottini, D. Rossi, G. F. Siboni (569 pp.) and vol. II, Percorsi economici e istituzionali, by G. de Vergottini, G. Cevolin, I. Russo (1044 pp.), published in 2012.

2 The multifaceted activity has recently been summarized in G. de Vergottini, Per il ventennale di Coordinamento Adriatico, Leone Editore, Milan 2013.

← 10 | 11 →

Ilenia Confente

Online demand and supply for the industry tourism in the Adriatic region

Abstract. The research provides an attempt to understand the flow of conversations that occur between the different social media in a given territory, exploring the online supply and demand for tourism products related to the Northern Adriatic area, giving particular emphasis to virtual communities of consumers.

Zahvaljujoč internetu je turistična industrija vključila informacijske in komunikacijske tehnologije v svoje vsakdanje dejavnosti, s tem pa razvila nove interaktivne aplikacije, ki izboljšujejo odnose med podjetji in strankami. Cilj študije je dojeti te spremembe na področju turizma zahvaljujoč spletu, ob upoštevanju razvoja ponudbe in povpraševanja, zlasti v povezavi z območjem severnega Jadrana.

Zahvaljujući internetu, industria turizma je uključila informacijske tehnologije i tehnologije komunikacije u svojim svakodnevnim aktivnostima, ostvarivši tako nove interaktivne aplikacije za poboljšanje odnosa između tvrtki i klijenata. Studija ima za cilj da razumije ove promjene u sektoru turizma, s obzirom na razvoj ponude i potražnje, zahvaljujući on-line okruženju, a posebno onih koji se odnose na područje sjevernog Jadrana.

Introduction

On one hand the Internet has revolutionized the way we communicate and sell products for companies; on the other, it has changed even the process of information gathering, evaluation of alternatives and choice of products and services for the consumer. Today tourism also speaks the language of new technologies, which are achievable through various interactive applications and multimedia contacts between companies and their consumers. The Net has become the battleground of many competitive challenges also in the field of tourism, and the unsuccessful consideration of these challenges involves a loss of competitiveness and the loss of relative positions in the hierarchy of touristic destinations and the unsuccessful exploitation of a great opportunity.

The necessity has emerged for the touristic offerings to adapt to the changes deriving from the advent of the Internet and from the new ways that consumers are using to collect information related to different tourist proposals. The new technologies and particularly the Internet, have modified the process of purchasing tourism products, and the consumer appears better informed, evaluating and ← 11 | 12 → comparing several online sources that enrich their existing knowledge. There are, in fact, different online interest groups related to tourism products and several rating systems for hospitality services or food services. The research will therefore provide some considerations for a discussion regarding the study of online supply and demand for tourism products related to the Northern Adriatic area, giving particular emphasis to virtual consumer communities. In these particular contexts, the perception of the offer relating to the territories of the Northern Adriatic will be of interest in order to better understand the consumer’s expectations and the existence of any gaps between supply and demand.

Thus, the aim is to explore the tourists’ perception of the tourist supply in the online environment. In this sense, the study will analyze the messages that are exchanged between online consumers about the Adriatic tourist offering, trying to provide support for companies in order to understand the consumers’ perception of their online supply. In addition, the main institutional portals of the examined destinations will be analyzed, studying how the online tourist offering is structured, suggesting the relative measures needed to adapt the tourist products and services of the Adriatic area to the new needs of the demand.

The influence of the digital environment and Word of Mouth in relation to consumer behavior

One of the tools that consumers use more to evaluate the alternatives in their purchasing decision process, as well as to share their experience with other consumers, is Word of Mouth (WOM).

Before highlighting the characteristics that distinguish the Online Word of Mouth (e-WOM), it is necessary to understand the meaning of Word of Mouth, a tool that has been defined as “an oral, person-to-person communication between a receiver and a communicator – whom the receiver perceives as non-commercial, regarding a brand, product, or service”1. Despite the different channels through which a person can receive information about a brand or a product, interpersonal communication is one of the most credible and important sources for the consumer. Several marketing studies have, in fact, emphasized the influence of communication coming from other consumers on perceived value, quality of service and customer satisfaction.2 ← 12 | 13 →

Word of Mouth, therefore, which assumes the fundamental role of a tool for the exchange of information and opinions about a product, service or experience, is a source perceived as reliable and as having strategic purpose towards the decision-making process of the consumer.3

It represents a marketing channel operated by the consumer and for this reason it is perceived as more reliable than the communication issued and managed by companies.4

Traditional Word of Mouth is defined as a spontaneous reaction of an individual to another individual that then vanishes without a trace. This characteristic does not exist in the digital age, in which the instrument remains for a certain period of time and is not necessarily spontaneous. In addition, the sender of the message might not always be perceived as non-commercial or their counterpart as a real consumer. Furthermore, this characteristic of permanence in time has allowed scholars to pay more attention to online WOM than the offline variety, since information is written, asynchronous, and can be archived, compared and is available for a very long period of time.

For these reasons, the Internet has helped to change the conception of WOM and at the same time the way in which marketers manage this important instrument in the marketing mix.

The transition from Word of Mouth (WOM) to Word of Mouse (e-WOM) started in the nineties5, but it is only in the last decade that this subject has become ← 13 | 14 → more and more popular at the academic level, particularly within the marketing perspective.

Although it retains the features of traditional Word of Mouth, Word of Mouse denotes some peculiarities, and therefore the existing theory on traditional WOM can sometimes be inappropriate to describe the phenomena of e-WOM and its influence on the consumer.

First of all, it is necessary to specify that e-WOM represents the most-used online interactions between consumers and it can take place between people who do not know each other or who have established relationships only in the virtual environment; moreover, they can choose not to reveal their identity, thus remaining anonymous. This last aspect allows consumers to share their opinions more spontaneously, expressing their judgments on products and brands. This can lead to an increase in the volume of e-WOM compared to traditional WOM. However, the anonymous nature of e-WOM can make it difficult for the consumer to understand the quality and reliability of the information that she/he collects from this source of information. Another factor that has contributed to the development and success of e-WOM is the network of interactions that have been created among consumers in the virtual environment, triggering feedback mechanisms for products, experiences and relationships, of a dimension difficult to achieve in a traditional context that, at very low cost, take advantage of the know-how of two-way online communication platforms.

The Internet then, has evolved over time, as has the individual user, who has become more and more active and participatory. To refer to the web today, we use the term Web 2.0, as this concept differs from Web 1.0 as it differs from traditional static websites, from e-mail, from the use of search engines and linear navigation to propose a more dynamic and interactive World Wide Web.

The new internet audience is formed, therefore, no longer by “consumers” but by users who are becoming more aware and producers of content; the latter publish for and share with other people in the network through the new digital technologies.

In the tourism sector in particular, the use of the Internet has brought profound changes that affect consumers and companies. In fact, more and more users take advantage of the Internet as a tool not only to organize trips and vacations, to search for schedules, information on destinations and to compare prices, but also to read the travel experiences of other consumers and disseminate their opinions regarding their travels or the hotel services. Other tourism companies have taken advantage of the opportunities offered by the network, creating websites and offering different services such as direct access to catalogs and price lists, or by providing ← 14 | 15 → the opportunity to virtually visit the spaces of the facility. Consumers, in fact, increasingly require this kind of direct contact with the supplier who enables them not only to find information important to the organization of the trip, but also to save costs, because the web allows the consumer to avoid the expense linked to the intermediation of tourism businesses, such as travel agencies.

Consequently, the activities of traditional communication need to be rethought and integrated based on the awareness that it is not possible to design any form of communication without thinking about how this will be implemented and spread in the “conversation of the market”. An example of a virtual community focused on tourism and travel is TripAdvisor, the largest global site for information and advice on travel destinations and one of the most-visited travel websites in the world. TripAdvisor provides authentic advice to travelers and easy access to major online booking sites. Through this website, you are able to share routes and know the source of the message, i.e, the more trustworthy opinions of others.

For the period 2010/201, research conducted by Travelpeople.it6 recorded a percentage increase of people who have consulted websites of local tourism institutions (+7%) and online booking sites (+6%) to collect functional directions for the purchase. In the 2010/2011 season, the percentage of users who, over the previous year, claimed to have bought “travel and related services” online increased (+11%).

Regarding the type of product and service purchased, there is a figure in line with that of the 2010/2011 season: 78% of users bought at least one trip, 66% had at least made a hotel reservation, 18% bought a package holiday, 18% a car rental service, and 13% travel insurance.

As for the information channels most used by travelers for their vacation, the web is adopted in 56% of cases, the consultation of friends and acquaintances in 18.8% of cases and travel agencies comprised 13%. The Internet then, is the prevailing place where users search for information on tourist destinations, accommodation and other types of services related to tourism, and at the same time it is the virtual space of dialogue where users can share their travel experiences. ← 15 | 16 →

The research background and method of analysis

Located to the north of the Mediterranean Sea, the territory of the Northern Adriatic is an important area in Europe, not only for marine and maritime purposes but also in terms of cultural history. Along with the other territories surrounded by the Adriatic Sea, this area welcomes millions of tourists every year.7 The Mediterranean Sea represents the most-visited sea, followed by the Tyrrhenian Sea, the Ligurian Sea and the Ionian Sea, because it is the privileged location of the most popular seaside hospitality infrastructures, appreciated by both Italian and foreign tourists.8 The Adriatic area is a territory with a strong tourist vocation, and it represents one of the top tourist destinations in Europe recognized both nationally and internationally. It is, therefore, a large and important economic resource for our country [Italy]9.

The area of the Northern Adriatic ranges from Croatia and Slovenia to the territories of Friuli Venezia Giulia, Veneto and Emilia Romagna (Figure 1), and is characterized by the diversity of its coast (rocky or long beaches) and by the presence of natural heritage and historical-artistic culture that is unique in the world. ← 16 | 17 →

Figure 1. The territory of the Northern Adriatic

Details

Pages
304
Year
2017
ISBN (ePUB)
9783631706091
ISBN (PDF)
9783653066593
ISBN (MOBI)
9783631706107
ISBN (Hardcover)
9783631674673
DOI
10.3726/b11435
Language
English
Publication date
2017 (June)
Keywords
Adriatic sea Istria and Dalmatia Logistics and Ports Cultural heritage
Published
Frankfurt am Main, Bern, Bruxelles, New York, Oxford, Warszawa, Wien, 2017. 304 pp., 6 b/w ill., 6 b/w tables

Biographical notes

Giuseppe de Vergottini (Volume editor) Valeria Piergigli (Volume editor) Ivan Russo (Volume editor)

Giuseppe de Vergottini is Professor Emeritus of Constitutional Law at the University of Bologna (Italy). Valeria Piergigli is Full Professor of Public Law at the University of Siena (Italy). Ivan Russo is Associate Professor of Supply Chain Management and Marketing at the University of Verona (Italy).

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306 pages