It is precisely Italy, together with France and Russia, the G-20 country that contributes the most to the recovery of the tourism and restaurant sectors, hit hard by the Covid crisis. This is certified by a study by Masterdard entitled "Recovery Insight: Travel Check-In“, which focused on the impact of the pandemic on the travel sector, with particular attention to changes in consumer spending patterns. The analysis took into account flight bookings, overnight stays and meals away from home, while activities such as going to the cinema were excluded. It came out that, using Mastercard's words, "our culture strongly focused on tourism and culinary tradition has greatly facilitated its recovery".
Also due to the very characteristics of our rich offer in those sectors, which the study did not fail to mention: "On the tourism front, in fact, Italy is well equipped to welcome all those travelers who - with the aim of help small businesses and ensure due social distancing – choose to stay in independent structures distributed in a capillary way from North to South, including the islands, thus maintaining the penetration of international hotel chains in Italy at only 5%. Furthermore, the joy of the table, whether it is with the family or away from home in the company of friends, is once again confirmed as a key element of the lifestyle of Italians and a further item of expenditure that concretely contributes to the recovery".
In short, in this phase of difficult interpretation, both for consumers and for companies in the sector, the paradigm of "small is beautiful" is as valid as ever. The capillarity of Italian beauty and the possibility of carving out a "tailor-made" holiday has meant that tourism is relaunching here more than elsewhere. In the ranking drawn up by Mastercard, the absence of Spain surprisingly stands out, while at the foot of the podium, behind Russia and France, are Australia, Germany and the United States. In Italy we even got to spend on travel and catering in July, compared to July 2019, only 25% less. Almost 30% less in Russia and France, over 40% less in Germany and the USA. The worst country in the G-20 is South Korea, where it spent just 18% compared to a year ago.
In the general repositioning of the market, Mastercard still observes that it used anonymously the spending data created on its international circuit, in the second quarter of 2020 "the share of car rental in total transport costs has almost doubled, going from 9% last year to 17%. This figure confirms the desire of consumers to favor travel with their own vehicles over public ones".
“There is no doubt that people love to travel – he commented Michele Centemero, Country Manager of Mastercard in Italy – What we are seeing, however, is that the way they travel has adapted to the current context. Spending on fuel, in restaurants or on bicycle rental: everything is improving, demonstrating an ongoing recovery albeit concentrated on proximity travel and local consumption. In other words, we are rediscovering road trips and the innumerable scenic, cultural and why not culinary beauties of our territories”.
