Development of the tourism function at the lakes of Northern Italy on the example of Lake Garda

Abstract

Lakes are important tourism attraction in many tourism regions of Poland as well as in the world. They play a key role in sport and broadly understood recreation, as they offer favourable conditions for practising various types of water sports, as well as the possibility to rest and at the same time, get away from the city noise. They have been popular since ancient times when wealthy Roman families visited lakes as their summer vacation destination. The aim of this article is to determine the level of tourism development and diversification on Lake Garda, located in the region of Northern Italy. Moreover, the study defines what lake tourism is and characterizes its individual types. At the same time, data collected by the regional statistical offices Regional Statistical Yearbook Lombardia and Sistema Statistico Regione del Veneto were used, from which data on tourist infrastructure and tourist traffic were obtained.