Pandemic, the tragedy of tourism: foreign spending down by 70 percent in October

2021-01-14T10:38:42.331Z

The coronavirus pandemic destroys tourism. In October, according to data from the Bank of Italy, the contraction in tourist flows, both inbound and outbound, resumed, in a context of worsening of the covid spread rates. Compared to October last year, according to the surveys of Via Nazionale, the expenses of foreign travelers in Italy, equal to 1,193 million, are 70.4% lower, those of Italian travelers abroad (572 million) by 75.5 %; the tourist balance of payments surplus was 620 million euros (it was 1,697 million in the same month of the previous year). The Via Nazionale report also states that in the three months ending in October, the expenditure of foreign travelers in Italy contracted by 49.3 percent compared to the same period of the previous year; that of Italian travelers abroad decreased by 69.3 percent. "In Italy, the sudden and drastic contraction of tourist flows will have significant impacts on national GDP and serious consequences on companies in the sector and its related industries". This is what the Bank of Italy affirmed in the report on international tourism in October 2020. "Tourism - write the economists of Bankitalia - represents an important sector of the economy in Italy and in the world, with a strong potential in terms of growth and employment as well as social and cultural integration ". And "the effects of the recent Covid-19 pandemic have made the relevance of this sector particularly evident".