The Italian tourism associations − the sector has been in ‘lockdown’ for 8 months, we need to change pace

After the enactment of the Decree of the President of the Council of Ministers on 24 October last, Assoturismo, Confturismo and Federturismo joined their voices to ask for adequate forms of refund for the entire Italian tourism chain. “The closure of some types of activities, the new restrictions for others and indications of behavior, for residents and citizens entering our country, contained in the Prime Ministerial Decree of 24 October, strongly reduce – both in concrete terms and for the psychological effect they induce – the propensity to consume giving a further serious blow to tourism,”reads the joint statement.

The problems, according to the associations, certainly do not arise in the autumn, given that the sector has been in crisis for much longer. “For eight months now, there have been no ‘tourists’ – except for an extremely short period of last summer and in some specific destinations – nor presumably there will be any for the entire winter season, up to Easter included,” the statement continues. “This is the unequivocal meaning of the official data of ISTAT and Bank of Italy, which between March and June quantify a reduction in the traffic of Italian and foreign tourists by 87%, of those published in the Update to the DEF, which identify a July a further collapse of 60% of foreigners’ spending in Italy and 56% of Italians’ spending abroad, and of a period from August to September in which, according to our estimates, we received 1 out of 4 foreign tourists and 4 Italians out of 10 did not even move from their places of residence for holiday reasons. Not to mention the collapse of business tourism and that of meetings, conferences and events”.

The forms of refund provided by the government so far are therefore not considered sufficient. “We need to think about the tourism supply chain as a whole, with new important measures”, the associations argue. “Even based on the first signs that emerge from the quantity and value of the applications submitted by some categories of the sector – those who were entitled to them – to receive non-repayable grants based on the reduction in turnover and fees, it is not hazardous to confirm the forecast already made in recent months that, out of 190 billion euros (a sum that corresponds to the value of the annual production of the activities of the sector and of those more immediately and directly connected) at the end of the year 100 will be missing”.

Assoturismo Confesercenti, Confturismo Confcommercio and Federturismo Confindustria therefore ask that all the further measures that will be decided in the coming days and weeks be based on the actual loss of turnover and fees that each activity is undergoing, avoiding fixed quantifications such as those based on ATECO codes. The sector associations “also ask that a broad and articulated line of interventions be dedicated to tourism, which responds not only to the importance of the sector on the economy, but also to its ability to generate induced activities in other sectors, and therefore of particular aptitude for resilience”.