The Christmas holidays are a distant memory. With the transfers between the regions blocked until January and the holidays to be spent in the municipalities of residence – notes Confturismo Confcommercio with Swg – there will be a lack of 10.3 million tourists in tourist-accommodation facilities between the end of December and January – 3.9 foreigners and 6.4 Italians – who would have spent no less than 8.5 billion. The propensity to travel is at an all-time low and the holidays are practically postponed to summer 2021: the value of the indicator – on a scale of 0-100 – falls by another 5 points up in October and stands at 39 (worst result ever), 31 points less than November 2019.
Even before the coup de grace inflicted by the restriction regulations launched this week, the second wave of the pandemic, for 88% of respondents represented a “brake” on planning holidays, with the consequence that 7 out of 10 Italians declared, already at the end November, which would not have made any trips, certainly at least until the end of January, putting an end to expectations of even a minimal recovery. Now the situation has worsened.
However, the perspective and context assessments expressed by the interviewees are even more fearful. Those who will wait from their residence even when the emergency is over rose to 44% – from the 37% that were in the October survey, and those who instead fall by 6 percentage points – from 45% to 39% – want to take a vacation as soon as they are out of Covid risk.
In short, the lights go out on a sector which, with its 190 billion production value, plays a completely strategic role for the national economy. Proof of this is that, when the sample is asked to imagine the place of the next vacation, 44% answer a seaside resort, and only 30% mention the mountains. In short, we project ourselves directly to summer by skipping winter and even imagining some trips abroad, but not in the exotic destinations typical of this period – such as the Red Sea, the Caribbean or the Indian Ocean – but those of summer Europe, first of all Spain and Greece.
“Our sector, already prostrate – says Luca Patanè, president of Confturismo Confcommercio – receives yet another hard blow with the closure to travel between Regions – even between Municipalities on the key dates – dictated by the latest measures: these are rules that do not allow practically any tourism has essentially been in lockdown for 10 months. In the budget bill presented to Parliament by the Government, there is no room for a broad “maneuver” dedicated to the sector. We expect swift interventions, many of the announced supports are not companies have still arrived. A broader initiative is needed. Precious time is also being wasted on the Recovery Fund. We do not see projects, we do not see concrete actions for tourism, no work table has opened at MIBACT: and to say that it was enough simply to re-propose what led us, in 2016, to draw up the Strategic Plan. We are at the point of no return “.
– .
