Start-ups: new financial instruments for tourism

The chapter is focused on the financing instruments for start-ups and on the link between new enterprises and tourism. The analysis is realized towards two steps. Firs of all, we update the review of the financing instruments for start-up. They can be divided in three categories: - equity, offered both by the founding shareholders and by the business angels; - banking and European funds, which need specific guarantees (in Italy we have the Italian Fondo di Garanzia – FGPMI); - crowdfunding. We study both the Italian equity crowdfunding (originally ruled by the D.L. 179/2012 and the CONSOB Regulation 18592/2013) and the lending crowdfunding. Secondly, we conduct the empirical analysis using: - the collection of written and online literature; - the interviews to workers in the field. To the best of our knowledge, no previous study focused on the analysis of the link between start-up, crowdfunding and tourism. That is why the chapter is an interesting operative guide and, in particular, a support for start-upper who need to evaluate the best financing instrument for a tourism initiative.