From the late 1990s, the European air transport deregulation has led to the increasing use of the plane to reach tourist destinations. This article investigates the impact of tourists’ changed traveling habits on Italy’s seasonal tourism demand pattern. The role of transportation on seasonality, indeed, has been almost neglected in empirical research. We analyze international monthly arrivals by transport modes from 1997 to 2018, and we use the Gini index as a measure of seasonality. The Gini’s decomposition allows us to evaluate the effects of the growth in the use of each transport mode (cars, planes, ships, trains) on seasonality. A beta regression model confirms that an increment in the proportion of tourist arrivals by airplane determines a reduction in Italy’s overall seasonality of international tourism demand. These results might be a starting point for policy makers in developing strategies to counteract seasonality.

从1990年代后期开始，欧洲航空运输业放松管制，导致飞机越来越多地用于到达旅游目的地。本文研究了游客改变的旅行习惯对意大利季节性旅游需求格局的影响。实际上，在经验研究中，运输对季节性的作用几乎被忽略了。我们通过交通方式分析了1997年至2018年的国际每月入境人数，并使用基尼系数来衡量季节性。基尼系数的分解使我们能够评估每种运输方式（汽车，飞机，轮船，火车）的使用增长对季节性的影响。Beta回归模型证实，乘飞机入境的游客比例的增加决定了意大利国际旅游需求总体季节性的下降。