Assessing the impact of tourism on hospitals’ performance in a coastal destination

Tourism represents one the most relevant industries in promoting the development
of a destination, but tourism and its seasonality can produce negative outcomes.
The additional demand caused by tourism can strongly affect public service
providers which cannot adapt their supply to seasonal variations as a result of
organisational, financial and institutional limitations. This work focuses on
hospital services in an Italian coastal destination and it aims to explain the impact
tourism and its related seasonality have on the performance of hospitals in a coastal
destination. The activity of three hospitals located in Gallura, a region in the northeast
of Sardinia, Italy, has been analysed. The analysis has been carried out using
data on hospitals admission from 2014 and 2015.The study highlights the critical
impact tourism can have on the activity of healthcare providers in a coastal
destination, identifying the reduction of hospital performance and a potential cause
of bed crises.