Milan (AFP)

Venice is unrecognizable, transformed into a ghost town, Portofino, the hotspot of the jet-set on the Ligurian coast, is deserted, just like Varenna on the shores of Lake Como: tourism in Italy, the fifth largest destination in the world, is paying a heavy price. tribute to the coronavirus pandemic.

The fall in the number of tourists to Italy will have been dizzying in 2020: only 25.53 million foreign visitors have put their suitcases on the peninsula, against 65.02 million in 2019, a decrease of more than 60%.

Receipts linked to international tourism have collapsed in the same proportions, passing to 17.45 billion euros, a shortfall of 26.85 billion for the sector compared to 2019, according to figures compiled by the Bank of Italy.

"The situation is really dramatic and everything must be done to revive such a vital sector for our country", claimed the president of the Italian Union of Chambers of Commerce, Carlo Sangalli.

Nearly 100,000 companies in the tourism sector in Italy are at risk of bankruptcy, according to the Demoskopika research institute, resulting in the loss of 440,000 jobs.

- 'Without George Clooney' -

"2020 has been a catastrophic year for us," says Marina Denti, owner of a leather store in Varenna, a small picturesque fishing village on the shores of Lake Como.

Foreign customers, first and foremost the Americans, are sorely lacking: "our turnover fell by 80% last year," she says.

"Even George Clooney does not come with this pandemic anymore", while he owns a grand villa on the other side of the lake, in Laglio.

Before the epidemic, tourism weighed nearly 14% of Italy's GDP, and its fall contributed to plunge the country in 2020 into the worst recession since World War II (-8.9%).

The pandemic has had a devastating effect on this vital sector for the third largest economy in the euro zone, forcing hotels and restaurants to remain closed for months.

To revive the machine, Italian railways will offer "Covid free" high-speed rail links between Rome and Milan in early April, a first in Europe.

All staff and passengers will be tested before boarding.

The airline Alitalia launched a similar initiative last year on certain domestic and international flights.

The mayors of Venice and Florence, cradles of art and history, have decided to form a united front to demand urgent aid from the government, ensuring that without these two cities, "Italy will not leave".

- 'Dead city like Pompeii' -

"Deprived of tourists, Venice has become a dead city like Pompeii, it's sad when you walk in the street", testifies Anna Bigai, one of the city's tourist guides.

In one year, it has only made a dozen guided tours, while overnight stays by foreign tourists have fallen by 54% to 184.1 million in 2020 in Italy.

The outlook for 2021 remains bleak: "international tourism in Italy should not return to pre-pandemic levels until 2023," warned the director of the national tourism agency Giorgio Palmucci.

Even Portofino, a popular destination for celebrities and billionaires around the world, has not been spared this wave of disaffection.

Its Rolex and Christian Dior stores remain desperately empty, awaiting the return of foreign customers.

"We lived in 2020 the worst year for ten years", laments Emanuela Cattaneo, owner of a wine bar on the port, regretting the absence of American and English customers.

But a few rare foreign tourists, like Italian vacationers, take advantage of the unusual calm.

"There are very few tourists here, it's really nice," says Rainer Lippert from Heidelberg in Germany, who came to admire the view from the roof of the Duomo in Milan, before the cathedral closed its doors in early March. , confinement requires.

© 2021 AFP