Italian tourism ‘”roared back” in 2022 but not to pre-COVID levels’, ISTAT said on Friday. The first nine months were positive, but accommodation levels were still down on 2019 figures.
The first nine months of 2022 marked a strong recovery for the tourism sector, the national statistics agency ISTAT reported. However, the presence of customers in accommodation establishments was still about 39 million less than in 2019 (-10.3%).
The balance from January to September closes with about 174 million Italian customers and 164 million foreigners: a substantial rebalancing of the two components of demand. However, that is still a drop of 6.7% and 13.8% compared to 2019.
There were approximately 196 million tourists in the summer quarter, 4.7% less than the pre-pandemic record figure of around 205 million reached in 2019.
Italian campsites and tourist villages witnessed a total of 10.5 million tourists in 2022, up by 11% compared to the previous year. This totalled 73 million nights spent – 57% of which were international tourists.
Tourists from Germany, Austria, Switzerland, the Netherlands, and Denmark represented 75% of all arrivals. Meanwhile, the duration of nights spent in the country increased from 6.8 days to approximately seven.
When ItalyNews.Online was in Venice this autumn, a local travel agency said they had stopped taking further bookings for 2023 as good hotel accommodation was fully booked already.
Tourism undefined in Italy
Italy is a favourite destination for international tourists. According to research by Confcommercio and Istituto Piepoli, Italy is the main destination for trips taken for pleasure. Interests in the spa and wellness sector being particularly attractive. Moreover, Rome is one of the most visited destinations.
Moreover, the European Office for Statistics, Eurostat, recently revealed that Italy and France received the most overnight stays in Europe.
However, Luciano Serra, the vice president of Confturismo-Confcommercio, said that Italy has not defined tourism effectively. Since 2012, there is no national definition of which businesses, activities, and tourism professions are related to the industry.
“The first thing to do by sitting at the table of the Strategic Plan of Tourism is therefore to urgently define a list at least of tourism businesses and professions that responds to the reality of the market and is shared by the Ministry and the Regions: and this must be fixed list with a national standard,” he said.
