Tourism, early Easter penalizes Sardinia
The Wonderful Italy study: «This year the proximity destinations win, the island suffers from the lack of a long bridge, the price increases and the usual transport problems»
«The early Easter at the end of March and the spring holidays which do not allow for the easy construction of bridges, combined with rainy weather and the grip of inflation, draw a very detailed map of tourism in Italy for the next spring months which rewards the destinations reachable quickly. Sicily, Sardinia and remote destinations in the South which require more holiday days and higher transport costs are therefore left behind."
This is what emerges from a spring report drawn up by Wonderful Italy, one of the main players in terms of number of directly managed holiday homes.
«The quantity of stays booked in the destinations managed by the company in the month of April, the first month of spring, is increasing compared to 2023. In particular, the cities of art such as Venice (+69%), the cities of historic cities such as Turin (60%), Bologna (40%), Genoa (38%) and Naples (36%). The latter is the only southern destination to position itself in the top part of the ranking. In fact, the large cities of the South such as Palermo, Catania, Syracuse and Bari are further behind, recording increases of between 20 and 30%", we read in the study.
«April has always represented the first test to measure Italians' desire for holidays because the days are finally getting longer, the weather is favorable and above all, the presence of holidays such as Easter, Liberation and May Day allow the weekends to be extended by one or two days", declares Michele Ridolfo, CEO and co-founder of Wonderful Italy. «This year, however, unlike 2023 - observes Ridolfo - early Easter does not contribute to creating long bridges with the other holidays. This circumstance, also combined with a high incidence of transport, has partially slowed down the more remote destinations that can preferably be reached by plane such as Sicily, Sardinia or even Puglia".
At a national level, the report further underlines, in addition to art and historical cities, the locations of the large lakes (Lake Garda and Lake Como) are recording very positive margins of growth, with increases compared to 2023 of between 55 and 60%. %.
(Unioneonline/lf)
