I grandi eventi sportivi e il rilancio turistico della città: il caso delle Universiadi Napoli 2019

The relationship between tourism and Mega Events is a topic that has been much investigated in recent decades by several researchers. Many cities in the advanced world, in a phase of deindustrialization and progressive outsourcing of their economies, see the organization of Mega Events as an effective way to reposition themselves in the context of the global geo-economic balances, in order to attract greater investments and increase tourist flows. In particular, for various reasons, sport Mega Events as the Olympics are among the most sought-after events. But these events do not always produce positive effects on the territory. The last 2016 Rio de Janeiro Summer Olympics are the demonstration of a failure. This contribution aims to analyze how and if the Universiade, held in Naples last July 2018, in the face of so many investments and at the cost of so much energy spent, has brought benefits to the city, in terms of increased tourist flows, as reported by various press bodies. From a methodological point of view, given the short period of time since the closing of the event, no specific studies have been yet published on this topic. So, special attention was given to direct sources, such as the data about the tourist flows to the Campanian Capital. The article consists of an introduction and three parts. The first part briefly describes the origin and the evolution of the Universiade, the second one analyzes the tourism effects of the Universiade on the city of Naples and the third one contains the conclusions.