Modelling the impact of High Speed Rail on tourists with Geographically Weighted Poisson Regression

Abstract In this paper the impact of High Speed Rail (HSR) on the tourism market is analysed. The original and added value of this contribution is in the proposed methodology, which considers the Geographically Weighted Regression technique, incorporated within a Poisson model. This approach allows measuring the relationship between independent and dependent variables with respect to space. The case study comprises 99 Italian provinces, analysed in the time period 2006–2016. The main outcome of the analysis is that HSR affects tourists 'choices of a given destination.