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04 September 2021To boost tourism is the holiday month par excellence: August. The demands of Italian tourism have risen: between June and August the Italian accommodation system recorded the arrival of over 33 million tourists for 140 million overnight stays, up 21% on 2020. Foreigners are also returning: foreign presences are high. 35 million, but in 2019 it was 100 million. The recovery excludes organized tourism and it is not enough for the cities of art: 10 million people are missing. A breath of fresh air for Italian tourism, also due to the positive numbers from September bookings, but uncertainty remains for the autumn. These are the main results that emerged from the survey carried out by the tourism study center of Florence for Assoturismo Confesercenti on 2,085 Italian accommodation companies.



The pre-Covid numbers are far away

Looking at the glass half full, attendance still remains well below the pre-Covid levels: -34% compared to summer 2019. What makes the difference once again is the almost total absence of non-European demand, which in 2019 was worth almost 18 million overnight stays, to which were added the results below the expectations recorded by accommodation companies in June and in the first days of July.



Do-it-yourself holidays, tour operators in crisis

Those who have traveled have chosen 21.9% to stay in hotels, 19.9% ​​in other solutions, organizing themselves.

So in this photo of tourism 2021 the do-it-yourself holidays win, while the crisis of organized tourism remains, from travel agencies to tour operators.



The chosen destinations

The recovery in demand was recorded in a uniform manner in all the macro-areas of the country, while a differentiated trend was observed for tourism products. The seaside and mountain resorts, which in the summer of 2020 had recorded a moderate recovery of the markets, recorded more contained growth values ​​in the quarter just ended, respectively + 19% and + 13.1%. A more sustained growth was declared by the companies of the lakeside resorts (+ 29%), but the spas also recovered (+ 27.4%), which in the summer of 2020 particularly suffered from the drop in demand. Rebound also for the cities of art (+ 25.4%),but despite the fair results of the period, these continue to measure themselves with the complexities of the market and the estimates would indicate a differential of about 10 million overnight stays compared to summer 2019.



September

Expectations for the month of September 46% of the sample reported an increasingly consistent flow of bookings which should contribute to improving occupancy rates, compared to last year's data. Based on the information received, the change expected for September is estimated at + 10%. The most optimistic reports come from businesses in the cities of art (+ 14%) and from the lakeside towns (+ 12.6%). Seaside and mountain resorts reduce expectations to + 7.9% and + 5% respectively. In absolute values, the expected change for September 2021, compared to the same period last year, is over 3 million more overnight stays, for a total of 33.6 million. Instead, the forecasts for the last period of 2021 confirm the situation of uncertainty.




Vittorio Messina, president of Assoturismo Confesercenti

"The results of the summer season were positive, even if three months of work are not enough to remedy the long inactivity of the sector, in crisis for more than a year now - comments Vittorio Messina, president of Assoturismo Confesercenti - now the hope is that the summer rebound was not a simple breath of fresh air, but will translate into the beginning of a structural recovery of Italian tourism. The signs of September are quite positive, but the uncertainty for the autumn is still strong, especially in the cities of art and in organized tourism that have not yet started "