P.bookings increasingly close to departure dates, boom in the central months of summer – July and August – and little push towards seasonal adjustment, short holidays (weekend or a week). These are some of the trends of the tourism in Italy (and not only) triggered by the pandemic and which are struggling to disappear. According to the study “Two years of pandemic: the balance of the Italian hotel sector “ made by the agency HotelierProthe last two years have transformed the hotel industry, starting from the way of planning the holidays. Direct bookings in structures are growing, mainly by telephone, with peaks of up to 36% of the total, to the detriment of agencies and digital platforms. Due to the climate of uncertainty, the distance between the booking date and the departure date is shortened, passing from 54 days in 2019 to 37 in 2021.
The last minute or last second reservationswhich in the cities of art represent 30% of the total, an aspect that entails a high rise in the prices of the structures with an average price increase for the same room and for the same date at 28%.
Tourism in Italy: the numbers of the hotel crisis
In the first season of the pandemic iTourism in Italy has lost over 63 billion compared to 2019 and, overall, the overnight stays of foreign tourists in Italy in 2020 decreased by 54.6% compared to the previous year. In 2021 the attendances in hospitality establishments increased compared to 2020 (+ 22.3%) but remain below the levels of 2019 (-38.4%). Positive signs of recovery were seen in the summer quarter, with tourist presences equal to 177 million (+ 31% compared to 2020), but 29 million less than in 2019 (-14%).
Sea and lakes they recovered while the mountain still suffered. There fear of Covid led to a decrease in the “large cities” category, made up of 12 Italian municipalities with more than 250 thousand inhabitants, which in 2019 had recorded about one fifth of the presences of the entire national sector: -71% against -38.4% of the national average . For 2022, a 50% reduction in the loss over 2019 is expected with data that could be around -15 / -20%.
The trend of holiday homes
The Holidu group, a travel-tech company specializing in the holiday home market took stock of this sector: internationally, the holiday home market recorded an average drop in searches of 33% on a weekly basis. The “staycation”: This year Italians still prefer Italy as a destination for their holidays, with 88% of the total searches dedicated to destinations in the peninsula. Among the Italian regions most sought after by Italians in 2022, we find Sardinia in first place with 14% of searches for Italian destinations, followed by Sicily (13%), Tuscany (11%), Puglia (10%) and Trentino-Alto Adige (8%).
Products and communities at the heart of tourism in Italy
According to the new project Unioncamere Isnart and financed by the Ministry of Tourism (presented last March 29 in Rome), the new tourism in Italy enhances the territories, products and communities. The study revealed that Italians have rediscovered local tourism and the propensity to discover nearby and “new” territories. Today 50% of tourists in Italy belong to generations Y and Z, born after 1981 and digital natives94% are attentive to sustainable travel options and 40% choose to explore little-known destinations, thirsting for rediscovery and a sense of belonging.
The cultural tourism continues to have a central role in the organization of the offer, so much so that over 53.1% of operators identify it as their area of specialization, since it places it at the top of the attention of the tourism industry, before nature tourism with 51.1%, of seaside tourism and related to water sports with 29.3% and of food and wine tourism with 23.8%.
Sustainable tourism
The tourism that looks to nature and sustainability discovering the agricultural production chain, experiencing direct experiences in the territories. According to data from the Univerde Foundation, for 74 percent of Italians sustainable tourism is the safest in the post-Covid phase, while 71 percent consider it ethically more correct and closer to nature and 84 percent also see it as an opportunity for economic development.
Innovation is also found in the type of accommodation, with travelers increasingly appreciating modalities such as widespread hotels or home exchanges. In particular, the internal and decentralized areas, such as those of the Apennines, are experiencing a brilliant moment.
Emotion cultivators, for example, it is a digital network that since 2016 has been promoting the protection of the national agricultural heritage through a social farming platform that allows small producers to be supported. On the site you can choose a farmer or agricultural production to support or select a location for live the direct experience of the territoriesexclusive moments together with farmers, discovering the beauties and ancient Italian traditions, often in villages today at risk of abandonment.
The Italian tourism of the villages
The National village plan provides that 21 selected villages will be assigned 20 million euros for the realization of a redevelopment project with a specific vocation: widespread hotels, coworking, cultural itineraries, food and wine, spaces for the elderly, film activities. And then new productive activities, microeconomics, experiential agricultural parks and artist residences. After years of depopulation and, in some cases, complete abandonment, the Italian villages are ready to be reborn thanks to urban and economic regeneration projects that aim to bring people back to these small paradises scattered around the Peninsula.
Panoramic view of the historic town of Assisi on a beautiful sunny day with blue sky and clouds in summer, Umbria, Italy.
The boom of cycle tourism
The need for social distancing, one greater attention to the environment, the desire for spaces and holidays in the open air, and the incentives for the purchase of bicycles have created fertile ground for the two-wheeler market that does not stop. The Cycling tourism continues to register a growing interest both in terms of demand, + 30% of tourists who choose the bicycle in the two-year period 2019-2021, and for its economic dimension as the per capita expenditure of this category of tourists is above the overall average.
For the territories and, in particular, the small villages, cycling is a high added value tourist e zero impact. Reference point of the sector in Italy is FIAB – Italian Federation of the Environment and Bicycle, for over thirty years active in the promotion of mobility on two wheels for daily use and for holidays. It offers multiple services dedicated to cycle tourism and is a reference point for holidays on two wheels both for those who want to organize them independently and for those who want to participate in accompanied trips in Italy and abroad. Among the upcoming programs, for example, the Week along the Waterways, from Saturday 14 to Sunday 22 May and the National Cycling Days, Saturday 11 and Sunday 12 June.
Among the services and tools that FIAB makes available to travelers on two wheels there is the site Albergabici.it to identify bike friendly accommodation facilities from over 600 hotels, b & bs and campsites; the online calendar of FIAB andiamoinbici.it where you can find, thanks to a search engine, excursions, trips and weekends by bike throughout Italy from over 2,000 proposals every year; the national cycle network Bicitalia.org fully mapped by FIAB where you can download over 21,500 GPS tracks for free.
There are also new projects such as Luxury Bike Hotelsa collection of high-end relais and accommodation facilities in Italy that stand out for their ability to offer tailor-made services for those who love to explore the territories by bicycle.
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