Movie-induced tourism for Sicily after Detective Montalbano TV fiction

The paper examines the effects of the touristic flows in the province of Ragusa in Sicily, originated by a TV fiction “Detective Montalbano” as a case study on the effectiveness of the regional cultural policies on the local development. The fiction started in 1999 and the paper analyzes its impact on local tourism from 1990 to 2012 .by the Index of differential touristic development Forte-Mantovani, (DTDI) which measures the supply of touristic receptive capacity by number of structures and beds and the demand of tourism flows of visitors. In order to disentangle the effect of a specific new factor, either positive as a tourist attractor or negative (as an environmental negative event) the DTD Index measures the differences positive or negative between the indicators referred to the given area and those of the nation and region to which it belongs. The empirical research on Ragusa province, Italy and Sicily before and after the first Montalbano TV fiction in 2000 reveals an important positive impact for Ragusa’ Province, as for the DTD Index both as for the supply of hotels and of nonconventional reception sites and for the arrivals and duration of the presences of Italian and foreign visitors. In the first part of the period after 2000 the positive effect consists in differential increase. After the 2008 international economic crisis, the positive effect consists in a smaller reduction of the DDT Index in comparison to Sicily and Italy. The success appears to depend on the strict coherence with the plot of the advertising of the area of location as well as from the attractive qualities of the localities advertised: a mix of factors paramount in the advertising technique of “product placement”, legalized in Italy only in 2004, as for the promotion of products or brands. Public economy may be very successful when it conforms to market economy principles.