Italian holidays for fellow countrymen, but a strong absence of foreigners, practically only Europeans. The photography of Italian tourism by the Confturismo-Confcommercio and Swg Observatory in July is slightly but not at all decisive. An average expense of 1,022 euros per family, about 680 euros per person but still 20% of Italians do not book due to economic problems and availability of holidays. Foreign tourists are absent who, between June and September, will be about 25 million less than last year with a loss of 75% of flows and even higher for spending, given that American and Asian intercontinental tourists will be missing. "big spender".
They will be holidays for rest and contact with loved ones, while important, more interactive aspects, which spread the spending of tourists in the places of destination, are relegated to the last places of preferences: this is the case of visits to museums, monuments and exhibitions , which drop from 33% last year to 15%, shopping, from 21% to 5%, or the practice of wellness, from 12% to 9%. The confidence index which measures the propensity of Italians to go on vacation rises to 65 - 3 points more than in June, but the comparison with the past is worrying: the index, in the same period last year, stood at an altitude 72, therefore 7 points higher. Furthermore, there is a strong number of uncertainties: 34% of the interviewees intending to leave by September had not yet booked at the end of July, while a further 8% do not even intend to do so and aim to find accommodation once they reach their destination. A "wait-and-see" attitude that raises many doubts as to whether this "desire for holidays" really materializes in one or more departures.
"In normal times, the four-month period June-September was worth 60% of the tourist presences and spending of the whole year in Italy: without counting the outgoing, where Italians spent, in the same period, 11.5 billion. Of all this , the summer of 2020 will perhaps save 25% ", comments the president of Confturismo Confcommercio Luca Patanè. "This while the trend of the epidemiological indices and the outbreaks identified in patches on the national territory - he adds - make news much more than the excellent work that operators in the sector and local communities do every day to guarantee tourists a serene use of their holidays". "Enough with this self-defeating approach - continues Patanè - and immediately a series of important measures with large allocations dedicated to the sector are underway. It should be noted, once and for all, that tourism has long been the backbone of the Italian economy , not a vague chance for the future. 1 million jobs are concretely at risk ".
