Between 2017 and 2018, Italy had a 3,2% growth in tourist overnights. Also thanks to this increase, tourist spending totaled 84 billion euros, of which 45,3% is due to foreign tourism. However, the increase in tourist flows has concentrated only on a few destinations and in a few months, to the point that Italy, which also boasts 5 million bed places, "sells" just under half of the places available and is confirmed " only” in fifth place of world destinations, compared to the second place in 1982, when we were behind only the USA and collected 8% of world tourism spending (today less than half).
These are some of the assessments and estimates presented by Unioncamere and Isnart on the occasion of the conferenceo "Enterprises>Tourism".
“Tourism must be brought back to the top of national policies, because it is an extraordinary driving force for the relaunch of the country-system with strong growth potential”. It is the comment of president of Unioncamere, Carlo Sangalli, who recalled how “the Chambers of Commerce have invested 65 million euros in the last two years of work, carrying out 220 project actions. Among these, the launch of a new economic observation model on tourism which, starting from the Business Register, makes use of artificial intelligence to help companies in their development paths. Also for this reason - continues Sangalli - we are helping entrepreneurs to speak the 4.0 language more and more through the digital business points that we have created to spread knowledge and the adoption of advanced technologies. And we are working to assist companies also on the issues of qualification and marketing of tourism products. The 'Italian Hospitality' brand, through the new launch of a quality rating, is one of the tools we make available to better qualify the tourist offer”. "These are interventions - he concludes - which are part of the three-year strategic plan that we have developed to give substance to the new function in the field of tourism promotion and enhancement of cultural heritage that the 2016 reform has entrusted to the chamber system".
"To understand the complexity of tourism, traditional statistics are certainly useful, but they must be combined with analyzes from Big Data processed through artificial intelligence tools", underlines the president of Isnart, Roberto Di Vincenzo. "And this is the challenge we have undertaken by investing in two high-tech tools, the map of opportunities and the big data Observatory, to respond quickly and appropriately to fundamental questions for the development of tourism."
2018: foreign tourism is still growing. The Italians are recovering
Between 2017 and 2018, considering tourists staying in accommodation facilities and private homes, Italy had an increase of 3,2% in presences. The foreign component continued the path of constant growth begun in 2009, increasing last year by +2,2%. After difficult years, in 2018 there was also a recovery in national tourism, which, in terms of presences, grew by +3,7%.
Considering only the presences in accommodation facilities, Istat shows that foreigners have increased since 2009 by 35,5% while Italians have returned to 2008 levels (+0,1%). Overall, tourism spending (direct and indirect) amounted to 2018 billion euros in 84. 43% falls on accommodation and catering services while the remaining 48 billion concern all the other services in the area. 45,3% is due to foreign tourism.
Since Italian and foreign tourists spent 3 billion euros during their vacation on purchases of typical food and wine products and over a billion on handicraft products, if each of the foreigners, returning to their own country, bought an Italian product even just once per month, a growth in turnover of around 10 billion euros could be recorded.
The hospitality sector, in particular, saw international tourist spending grow by 12,4% last year. However, the growth of tourist flows was concentrated in a few destinations, and in a few months. In fact, Istat shows that the large cities of art alone concentrate 19% of arrivals and 15% of overnight stays, the three summer months 39% of arrivals and 52% of total overnight stays. Furthermore, according to Eurostat, Italy has 5 million bed places. But the average annual occupancy is actually 46%.
Italy fifth tourist destination in the world
In the world ranking of international arrivals, the primacy goes to France which in 2017 recorded 86,9 million arrivals, followed by Spain (81,8) and the United States (76,9). Italy is fifth, with 58,3 million arrivals, behind China (60,7). Moreover, our country, in 1982, collected about 8% of world tourist spending (for vacation, work and other reasons) and was the second country in terms of market share after the United States; France and Spain recorded values similar to those of Italy. However, with the advance of new destinations and emerging countries, the market shares of Europe and Italy recorded a sharp contraction: in 2017, Italy's incidence on world tourism expenditure was around 3,4 %.
The web conquers the tourist market
As the surveys of the Milan Polytechnic show, the web is increasingly becoming the privileged gateway for tourists to all international markets. In Italy, 24% of travel and holiday purchases in Italy today are made via the Internet, with an annual increase of 8%. Mobile bookings represent 18% of digital transactions, up from 4 years ago they did not exceed 4%. Only 10 years ago, a third of companies marketed themselves on large online portals, today it is 82%. Furthermore, the web influences the holiday destination choices of 4 out of 10 tourists, four times more than 10 years ago.
The numbers of the tourism chain
The entire tourism chain, which includes accommodation and catering companies, travel agencies and tour operators but also other sectors that complement and support the main ones (such as, for example, transport or leisure and entertainment activities ) is made up of 612 businesses with over 700 local units. It represents 10,1% of the national production system, surpassing the manufacturing sector. The incidence of employment is high: with 2,7 million workers, tourism accounts for 12,6% of national employment.
The added value produced by the sector was equal, in 2015 (Istat source), to 88 billion euros, 6% of the total added value of the economy (20 billion more than the contribution provided by the agri-food sector). Considering only the primary sector, made up of the accommodation and catering systems, the estimates of the chamber system indicate that in 2017 the added value was 58 billion, equal to 3,8% of the total in Italy.
