Cultural industry meets tourism: Productive intersectoral spillovers and cluster synergies

Culture and tourism integration is widespread, yet research verifying their productive synergy remains limited. This paper investigates the economic impact of intersectoral and spatial interdependencies within Italy’s cultural and tourism industries at the sub-regional level. The analysis introduces a novel definition of cultural-tourism clusters, enabling the modeling of sectoral linkages across areas with varying degrees of cultural and tourism identity and specialization. Results reveal significant intersectoral and spatial spillovers, particularly in areas embedded in mid-tier cultural-tourism clusters. These findings provide valuable insights for regional development and place-based policies, leveraging complementarities across sectors and territories with different economic and cultural vocations.