The investigation of socio-cultural impact of tourism has brought about a substantial number of case studies, still its assessment remains very poor. This paper aims to put under discussion some indices and instruments of measuring the socio-economic impact of tourism, such as tourism intensity, correlation indicators, covariance analysis, Kuznets curve, regional tourism development typology at European and national level. The results of this analysis should represent useful data for policy-makers and practitioners in order to consolidate tourism policy objectives and philosophies of development on medium and long term.