Italy Is a Main EU Destination for Pleasure Trips, Survey Reveals
Research by Confcommercio and Istituto Piepoli, with respondents from the United States, Germany, Brazil, France, and the United Kingdom, has revealed that 84 per cent that picks Italy as their destination are driven by pleasure reasons, with Rome being cited as the main spot.
The research reveals that respondents that said they wouldn’t visit Italy yet, claimed so because they planned to do so in the future or cannot afford it at the moment, SchengenVisaInfo.com reports.
Moreover, French and German respondents revealed that their interest in the landscape of Italy was important to them, while the remaining respondents listed the value for money and their interest in culture as the main reasons for their visit.
On average, trips to Italy are usually organized more than three months in advance, with Brazilians and the British organizing the trip 120 prior to travelling. The main sources of information for them are specialized websites, while a large portion also prefers direct contact and the accommodation facility.
“The good performance of the summer was not enough to bring the budget of the Italian tourism system back to balance. We look forward to the coming months with great concern and the risk that all markets, not just the tourism one, will be marred by an explosive combination of cost increases and demand reduction,” Bernabo Bocca, the president of Federalberghi Study Centre, said.
According to the study centre, despite the positive summer season, from January to September, there was a decrease of 6.9 per cent in the number of tourists compared to the same time in 2019, which marked a 3.6 per cent decline for Italians and another 10.1 per cent international tourists. In total, 26 million overnight stays were lost.
Findings also reveal that one of the most sought aspects are spa sector, which doesn’t concern the medical aspect but is more related to “wellness,” which can also develop even further.
This year was a year to be remembered for Italian campsites and tourist villages, as there were 10.5 million tourists – 11 per cent more than in 2021, spending 73 million overnight stays, with 57 per cent of those being foreigners.
Germans, Austrians, Swiss, Danes, and Dutch tourists represented 75 per cent of all arrivals, while the longevity of nights spent in the country increased from 6.8 days to about seven.
Furthermore, the accessibility of facilities, at the centre of the attention and care of companies since the early 1980s, with inclusive solutions that have allowed an important range of users – 130 million people in Europe and ten million people in Italy – to access a holiday in complete serenity, remains a key issue for the tourism sector in Italy.
