| Summary: | Tourism activity is often analysed using data about arrivals and accommodation capacities in hotels and similar establishments. We contend that these statistics are not sufficient to analyse the tourism phenomena, particularly place attractiveness. In order to fill this gap, we suggest an original indicator of touristic attractiveness at the municipal level, using textual analysis of travel guidebooks. After a review of the literature devoted to the role of guidebooks in shaping tourist destinations, we apply our methodology to the Corsican case (France). Due to linguistic and statistical issues, notably in Corsica, it is crucial to make someone supervise the indicator building process. Moreover, testing our indicator through several guidebooks yields very similar results, suggesting that our indicator is robust. Finally, using multivariate regression and decorrelation technics, we develop an attractiveness indicator that offers a better understanding of tourism activity, compared to more traditional communal statistics and touristic indicators.
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