Italian tourism resumes slowly: sea and mountains perform better than art cities

Positive signs come from tourism that prefers sea, lake and mountains, while art cities continue to struggle. This was revealed by the latest survey carried out by the Centro Studi Turistici (CST) for Assoturismo Confesercenti, which analyzed the availability of rooms on the main portals of online travel agencies (OTA) in the weekend just ended (18 and 19 July ). If the sea and the mountains see an occupation rate of 70% and 68% respectively, the lakes also do not go badly, with an average rate of 66%. Although rising, the numbers are still very far from the values ​​normally achieved in past years, which for the seaside sector usually exceed 90%.

Cultural destinations suffer the most, with only 51% of the rooms available booked. In Rome and Florence only slightly more than a third of the availability (36%) is booked. Naples (38%) and Venice (42%) also hurt; Palermo (45%), Milan (46%) and Bologna (49%) do a little better, while Perugia (54%) and Matera (55%) record results above the average of the other art cities – although still unsatisfactory. The crisis is mainly attributable to the lack of foreign tourism, which on average, during the summer season, accounts for about 68% of the presences. The Assoturismo-CST forecasts are not positive: in the period June-July-August in Rome, Venice, Florence, Milan and Naples alone there will be about 8.5 million fewer visitors than in the same period of 2019.

Even more disheartening signals come from SPAs and hills, which record even lower percentages of occupation (49%) than art cities. The CST also reports that, apart from stopping foreign tourism, the health emergency has generally changed the choices of Italians in terms of travel. While not completely curbing the desire for a holiday, the tendency to travel short, 2 or 3 nights, is confirmed, choosing mainly seaside or mountain resorts, possibly not too far from home.

“The combined absence of tourists and smart working is emptying the art cities and literally killing the historic centers, which are becoming red areas of the economy,” comments the president of Assoturismo, Vittorio Messina. “An intensive care intervention is needed, to buffer an apparently infinite crisis that is seriously compromising not only the businesses of accommodation and tourist services, but also bars, restaurants and shops of cultural destinations and historic centers, which are now out of breath, companies that need to be sustained longer, with non-refundable contributions, social safety nets and tax credit for rents. If we do not hurry, we run the serious risk of losing the good things that have been done in recent years on the tourist reception front, with thousands of activities that will not come to see autumn”.