The emergence of a new entrepreneurial culture. Luxury hotels and elite tourism in the Italian Riviera (1860-1914)

From the mid-nineteenth century, the development of elite tourism in Europe led to the birth of large and luxury hotels, specifically designed to accommodate wealthy and sophisticated guests requiring a wide range of high-quality services. As a result, the traditional hospitality model gradually evolved into a ‘modern’ industry, entailing implications on technology, investments, personnel, organization, and management. All these changes led to the emergence of a new paradigm of hospitality, which became widespread in several tourist areas throughout Europe. These issues are analyzed by focusing on the case of Liguria, the so-called Italian Riviera, which in this period emerged as one of the leading tourist regions in Europe. In particular, this essay demonstrates how the diffusion of large and luxury hotels was possible thanks to the mobility of human capital that fostered the spread of a new entrepreneurial culture, deriving from the merging of different models and experiences. It also highlights how this has been crucial to allow Riviera’s hotel firms to gain international reputation and success in a context characterized by increasing international competition.