Tourism, Omicron effect on end-of-year bookings
Less than 120 million visitors in Italy compared to 2019 data
2021 ends with disastrous numbers for Italian tourism : there are in fact at least 60 million arrivals and 120 million fewer presences compared to 2019, as well as 13 million fewer trips by Italians abroad.
And not even the last period of the year was spared due to the spread of the Omicron variant and the increase in infections: for the holidays between Christmas, New Year and Epiphany compared to the 25 million departures scheduled by the Italians just a few months ago, five million have already been canceled and 5.3 million modified, with a reduction in vacation days or the choice of a closer destination. There are also seven million trips that are still pending.
The alarm was raised by a survey carried out by Confcommercio in collaboration with Swg and on Istat and Bankitalia data.
The trade association also highlights "the exponential growth in the last few days of cancellations in catering and the dramatic situation in the entertainment sector with the closure of activities".
This is why he asks the Draghi government to intervene: "It is clear that the executive must support these components of the tourism sector in particular by adopting measures on social safety nets, without increasing costs for businesses, and on access to credit, but also fiscal interventions. and non-repayable contributions based on the losses incurred ".
At Christmas, six out of 10 respondents were away from home for a maximum of two days without going outside their region, while only 5% went abroad. Data are in line with regard to the length of the holiday even on New Year's Eve, when, however, those who will take holidays of four days or more - four out of 10 - will also go outside the Region. However, the forecast of trips abroad remains low: 8% between New Year's Eve and Epiphany, against values that in this period, before the pandemic, exceeded 20%.
In this situation, according to Confcommercio, hopes for a recovery in the sector shift to summer 2022, that is, in more than six months and almost 30 from the start of the crisis linked to the Covid-19 emergency.
(Unioneonline / F)
