World and Italian tourism show an excellent state of health and continue to grow, despite the many events that have disadvantaged the increase, above all terrorism and migratory phenomena. 2016 was a very positive year for world tourism, with over 1,2 billion international arrivals.
This data is provided by the dossier created by Unicredit and Touring Club, from which it emerges that theEurope remains the most visited tourist destination with about 620 million arrivals, followed by Asia, the Pacific and America. Setback for the Middle East (-4,1%) compared to 2015.
“The forecasts remain positive also for the next few years with prospects for expansion in the medium term” declares Giovanni snore, Co-Head of the activities of commercial banking for Italy by Unicredit. “Unicredit, also through the "UniCredit4 Tourism" project launched in April 2015, renews and strengthens its commitment to support the Italian tourism industry, a driving force for development for the national economy. To date, within the project, we have already disbursed over 1,3 billion euros to the tourism sector and acquired around 13.000 new customers".
Looking to Most visited countries in the world, is confirmed in first place France (84,5 million international arrivals), with Italy ranking fifth with 50,7 million arrivals. The data for 2016 highlight the effects of the difficult and dangerous international situation. In fact, France, despite being the most visited country in the world, shows a trend of arrivals down by 4% due to fears of terrorist attacks in large cities, while Turkey, for example, has seen a drastic reduction in flows (-30 %) after the failed coup last summer.
La Mediterranean crisis it obviously also penalized North African countries such as Egypt, until a few years ago a very popular destination for European tourism, which in 2016 lost over 40% of its flows. From this situation, Cyprus, Spain, Malta and Croatia have taken advantage and benefits, countries less involved in terrorist attacks and by the landings of migrants, for this reason considered safer by tourists. Among the emerging countries, for the second consecutive year the Mexico is confirmed among the destinations that most attract tourists in the world.
Another phenomenon revealed by the Unicredit-Touring Club report is that ofOvertourism. These are peculiar situations that very often transform the economic benefits of tourism into threats to environmental and social sustainability. Just think of the case of Venezia, where a few weeks ago the option of "limited number tourism" was proposed, to prevent the thousands of people who visit the lagoon city every day from bringing problems of public order and slowdowns to the life of the city. The phenomenon also concerns Iceland, which in recent years has become a very popular destination. Not surprisingly, the assembly of the United Nations declared 2017 International Year of Sustainable Tourism.
ITALY
Despite being very often underestimated, tourism represents one of the main sources of wealth for Italy. In 2016 we received 50,6 million travelers and data from the World Tourism Organization certify that our industry is worth 70,2 billion euros (the 4,2% of GDP) and employs 2,7 million people. If Germany is confirmed as our first reference market (53,3 million), the real news is the strong increase in China which, for the first time, enters the top 10, with 5,4 million admissions.
“Tourism in Italy is experiencing a happy moment: we are reaping the results of the international visibility of Exhibition and we are facilitated by the situation in the Mediterranean which penalizes the southern shore. However, we hope the latter will be a transitory geopolitical scenario” says Franco Iseppi, Chairman of the Touring Club Italian. “It is therefore necessary to follow an Italian path to tourism that enhances our attractors, traditional and new, and consolidates over time the positive results of these years even in a competitive context different from the current one”.
The great problem of our country is theexcessive concentration of travelers in some specific areas at particular times of the year. Analyzing the Italian regions in detail, it is surprising to observe the double speed with which the regions of the Centre-North and those of the South are advancing.
And the Veneto the region most touristic in Italy (63 million), with data four times higher than those of Sicily. As far as incoming spending is concerned, Lazio is confirmed in first place, with even 6,4 billion euros spent by foreigners out of a total of 36 in 2015. A particular fact that can be seen in the Unicredit4Tourism initiative is the dependence of incoming tourism on the German-speaking world. In 14 regions, Germany is the leading market.
Finally, in the ranking for guest satisfaction in terms of positive sentiment on accommodation facilities, Valle d'Aosta is in first place, followed by Basilicata and Trentino-Alto Adige.
