This has not been a summer to remember. At least not the way many expected after a sparkling start to the year. Inflation, the heat and the flooding in Romagna weighed particularly heavily on the final balance. That said, it wasn’t a total disaster, thanks chiefly to the substantial resurgence in international interest that packed the streets of our art cities. This is the initial evaluation of the high season from Assohotel Confersercenti on a survey by Florence’s Tourism Studies Centre and a sample of 1,449 hoteliers.
The negative part, over the same period in 2022, was that domestic demand posted a sharp drop of -5.7%, while foreign visitors increased by 3.6%. So all told, summer 2023 should close with a 1.4% decline in overnight stays. In absolute terms the number of tourists in Italy registered in Italian accommodation facilities were around 50.5 million, for a total of 207 million overnights, which is three million fewer than last year.
There was a sharp drop in the number of visitors to seaside resorts (-3.2%), as well as to rural and hillside areas (-3.1%), but good growth was reported in the art cities (+2.7%). Lake and mountain destinations remained the same, but there was also a decline in spa tourism. The markets that registered significant growth were France, Holland, the US and Poland. There was also a slight increase in arrivals of tourists in Italy from the Czech Republic, Belgium, Switzerland, Australia, Canada, Hungary, Spain and the United Kingdom. Tourists from Brazil, Germany, Scandinavia, South Korea and Israel remained stable, while Indian, Austrian, Chinese and Japanese arrivals dwindled.
Massimiliano Sarti
Journalist
