RIMINI - Tourism is the realm of women for better or for worse. If they are dominant in tourist demand, so much so that they deserve "a tribe of traveling women" among the various types of tourists, it also happens that entrepreneurs and tourism workers have been the most affected by the damage of the pandemic. At the TTG Travel Experience in Rimini, two events dedicated to the female tourism supply chain - in which data elaborated by the Unioncamere-Infocamere Female Entrepreneurship Observatory and by the Observatory on the tourism economy of the Italian Chambers of Commerce were illustrated - provided a photograph of how this is evolving both in terms of demand and in terms of supply.
THE FEMALE TOURIST DEMAND
- Women are dominating the tourist scene of this period. The phenomenon of women traveling alone emerges, which has grown rapidly in recent years. Additionally, around 80% of all travel choices are made by women. Even the web photographs the phenomenon: there are 152 million results that Google returns by typing "Solo Female Travel", compared to 100 million compared to "Solo Male Travel". Women who travel alone trust the advice of Facebook groups and, more generally, social networks and blogs, born of women for women.
In this context, among the "tribes of tourists" also that of the tourist woman becomes part of the right, with very marked characteristics including the preference for cultural travel (46.5%), naturalistic and "adventure", the choice of purchasing local goods and products, with an average expenditure greater than male tourists and greater attention to responsible travel.
As for the summer just ended, the surveys carried out by Isnart on the choices and motivations that have moved female tourism offer some food for thought: in the current pandemic context, 23% of women, Italian and foreign, have oriented their choice towards Italy, also thanks to the perceived "covid security" regarding our country; moreover, 56% of the women interviewed declared that they were directly influenced by the "Covid security" measures in the choice of stay. In the last summer season, women traveling alone preferred to be hosted by friends or relatives rather than staying in accommodation facilities.
THE FEMALE TOURIST OFFER
- In 2011, the weight of female entrepreneurs in tourism was 29.7%, it reached its minimum in 2014 (26.9%) and then stood at 27%.
The sector where the share is greater is that of travel and rental agencies (35%), and the hospitality sector (35%), while the presence in the transport sector is lower (9%). The regions with the most truistic entrepreneurs are Valle d'Aosta, Friuli Venezia Giulia and Trentino Alto Adige, while Sicily, Puglia, Campania, Basilicata, Lombardy and Lazio record the lowest percentages.
The female component in tourism (27%) is higher than that in the total of companies (22%). The number of female tourism businesses recorded a drastic decrease due to the pandemic (-34% of companies registered in 2020 compared to 2019), a decrease that continued until the first half of 2021 with a further -1.7% and then returned to mark positive growth rates in the current half year.
Covid has had a particular impact on smaller companies, partnerships which fell by 42.6% due to the economic but above all social emergency. In parallel, female entrepreneurship is evolving with an increase in capital enterprises which represent 23% of the total tourism (18% of the total economy). This value has been increasing from 2011 to today: it has gone from about 20 thousand female tourism businesses in 2011 to over 41 thousand in 2020. The strong increase in joint stock companies is mainly due to the catering sector (132%) which passes from about 10 thousand to over 23 thousand Many of the new businesses are born for women's initiatives and are aimed at women: travel companies,accommodation and transport services dedicated to a female clientele that will represent an excellent market opportunity in the near future. The number of young tourism entrepreneurs is also destined to grow, the incidence of young people is higher in female enterprises (12.5%) than in male ones (9.6%). (HANDLE).
