New Perspectives in Economic Value Assessment as an Integration of Social Accountability. A Practical Application in the Spa Industry

In trying to understand the history of spa activities in Italy from an economic perspective, one could but acknowledge the importance of the efforts spa resorts are making today to differentiate their activities with the purpose of tackling the crisis of the sector that started in the 90’s and was worsened by Law no. 323 of 2000 concerning the reorganization of the spa industry. One of the most valuable among the multiple communication tools available for the entities of the sector is the social balance, whose aim is accountability towards all the stakeholders concerning the added value created and distributed, a tool that may find a useful integration in the calculation of the economic impact produced on the reference territory. This work, after a brief overview of the most accredited literature on social reporting and economic impact analysis, with a special reference to the tourism industry, will more specifically investigate the idea of combining these two tools to enhance the social and economic function of corporate information.