6 out of 10 are Italian

Forecasts are improving, but are still below expectations at the start of the season.

Five nights from August 11th to 16th are planned for the long weekend in August 17 million tourists are expected, 60% of them Italians in official accommodation establishments. The numbers are of course increasing compared to the last few weeks There will be no sellouts: During the busiest time of the Italian bank holidays, many resorts are seeing an increase in bookings, albeit at levels far removed from the ‘traditional full house’ of mid-August.

That’s what comes out of it surveillance prepared by the Center for Tourism Studies of Florence for Assoturismo Confesercenti on the availability of the accommodation present on the various online booking portals. The average occupancy of the service is 90%, more than a point less than in 2022, even if the bridge will last one day longer in August 2023 due to the calendar.

After two months of the market downturn, Italian accommodation providers’ expectations of recovering their occupancy by a few percentage points in the central week of August still appear to be unaccounted for. For the bridge from August 11th to 16th (5 nights), the saturation of offers varies between 94% of the seaside resorts and 80% of the thermal baths.

In general it is like this A temporary increase in employment rates is expected the different types of tourism productsbut at lower levels than in 2022.

An average decrease of around 4 points was recorded for marine locations and one percentage point for lake locations. Structures in rural/hill and mountain areas recorded around 3 points less than the same period of 2022. For art cities, the average occupancy rate remains at 82% compared to 84% last year, while facilities in spa towns increase with an increase to 80% by about a point.

A differentiated development can also be seen in the employment rates of the main Riviera. Against a slight increase in the saturation of the supply of accommodation on the southern coasts and on the islands, stable values ​​are obtained for the Venetian Adriatic coast, the Conero and the Costa Smeralda. A slight decrease in saturation rates was seen for all other Rivieras, with a more pronounced decrease for the Riviera Romagnola.

Regions with an employment rate above 90% include Aosta Valley, Liguria, Trentino Alto Adige, Friuli Venezia Giulia, Tuscany, Marche, Abruzzo, Puglia, Calabria, Sicily and Sardinia. For the remaining nine regions, the average saturation varies between 78% and 90%.

“In mid-August there is finally a return to the growth of tourist flows, even if we remain far from expectations and, in all likelihood, we will see a decrease in the number of visitors compared to last year”, comments Vittorio Messina, President of Assoturismo Confesercenti -. Unfortunately, this summer was held back by a number of factors, including the high cost of living – which has caused difficulties in particular for families and increased the prices of destinations – to the chaos of fares explodes, exacerbated by the problems at Catania airport. Elements that should make us reflect on the perennial problems of our tourism: We must use the resources of the PNRR to improve the infrastructures to support the tourism economy.”