In 2020 the number of Italians who play sports on holiday has almost doubled: from 18% in the summer of 2019 to almost 32% in the summer of 2020. This was discovered by the periodic surveys of Isnart, the Unioncamere tourism study center. .
"We do surveys before the summer and in September among tourists and accommodation facilities in Italy - explains the researcher of Isnart Alberto Bazzucchi to ANSA -. In 2020 the tourists were only Italians, due to the pandemic. The percentage of those who have said he did sports on vacation was 31.7%. The average of previous years was 18% ".
In particular, adds the researcher, "38.5% went trekking, 31.1 biking, 25.6% diving, 23.5% surfing and windsurfing, 22.5% sailing.Many people did more than one sporting activity on vacation. "
The Isnart questionnaires do not ask for the reasons for this change of habits: "We can hypothesize a cultural evolution of Italians, accelerated by the pandemic: after the lockdown, everyone wanted to go out and do physical activity", comments Bazzucchi.
It remains to be seen whether this boom in sport on holiday among Italians will also be confirmed for the summer of 2021: "We will know at the end of this year's surveys -, says the researcher -. The signs we have, however, are that the trend towards sporting activity will be maintained again this year. On the Italian paths and cycle paths we see more and more people ".
"And to think that the French and German tourist boards - concludes Bazzucchi -, when they indicate the various activities on holiday in their studios, write 'doing nothing' directly in Italian".