A beauty tax, and quite a large one, was the provocation launched by Elisabetta Fabri at the first Pambianco hospitality forum. A tax, as a contribution to culture, to be paid by tourists arriving in Italy, to protect Italy’s natural heritage. Of course, you would then have to understand and monitor how these funds would be used, added the president and CEO of Starhotels, "but our country is a high-end product, unfortunately located on morphologically fragile terrain. And as such it absolutely cannot sustain excessive flows of overtourism for long."
Ideally for Elisabetta Fabri, we should focus not so much on the numbers as on the value that tourists bring.
“It’s not just a question of turnover, and of course I’m not suggesting we exclude travellers on small budgets. But we can certainly steer tourist flows away from peak periods. Otherwise we risk losing our identity, that characteristic lifestyle that makes Italy a dream destination, and more appealing than any form of ostentatious luxury.”
Who would have thought just four years ago, that talking again about overtourism would be almost a relief after the three terrible pandemic years. Of course I don’t want to underestimate the issue that, for a morphologically fragile country such as ours as Elisabetta Fabri rightly points out, remains a serious problem that urgently needs addressing. But I wonder why, when it comes to tackling complicated issues, the answer is always to make people fork out more money for taxes and levies? With a little creativity, perhaps, and I stress perhaps, there could be other ways. I don't have the answer of course, but with a little effort perhaps we could try to find it. To the benefit of all, hoteliers included.
