Easter with family or friends, but even alone: people are even travelling alone if it means not missing out on the Italian experience and lone travellers account for 34%
PRESS RELEASE
EASTER WITH FAMILY OR FRIENDS, BUT EVEN ALONE: PEOPLE ARE EVEN TRAVELLING ALONE IF IT MEANS NOT MISSING OUT ON THE ITALIAN EXPERIENCE AND LONE TRAVELLERS ACCOUNT FOR 34%
A 30 MARCH ABOVE EXPECTATIONS: PEAK ATTENDANCE EXPECTED
ITALY ON THE PODIUM OF THE BEST DESTINATIONS: 217,000 FOREIGNERS AND 12,000 ITALIANS EXPECTED
THE LONGEST STAYS? BRAZILIAN VISITORS: STAYING AT LEAST 20 NIGHTS THEY EVEN BEAT VISITORS FROM THE STATES ATTRACTED BY ROOTS TOURISM
ALL THE MOST POPULAR CITIES AND THOSE WHERE THE INVESTMENT IS HIGHER
Easter with family or friends, but if you don't want to miss out on an Italian stay, you can travel solo too. In fact, around 29.0% of passengers will visit as a couple while 34.2% will visit Italy alone; this is followed by 10.0% travelling in small groups of four passengers and a further 9.6% of three-passenger parties. To date, there are approximately 217,000 confirmed airport passengers for the two weeks of Easter, from 25 March to 7 April 2024, 9.0% more than for the same Easter period in 2023 (3-16 April).
The length of stay has increased by 1 night to 10.2 nights while the cancellation rate has decreased by 0.4%. The main countries of origin see the Italian domestic market in the lead, followed by the US, Germany, France, Spain, the UK, South Korea, Brazil and the Netherlands.
Seoul, Paris, Madrid, New York, Los Angeles and Buenos Aires are the big departure cities for tourists coming to Italy. Considering just the arrivals between the Friday before Easter and Easter Monday, the increase is close to 15.6 per cent for 63,000 confirmed bookings. The USA confirms its status as the top foreign country, with over 11,000 bookings, 17.7 per cent of the total. Germany, France and Spain follow, with airport arrivals accounting for 5.2%, 4.6% and 3.6% respectively. Other nationalities expected are the British (3.5%), Brazilians (2.6%), Koreans (2.2%), Portuguese (2.1%) and Canadians (1.9%). The Brazilians will stay the longest on average, spending around 20 nights in Italy. Canadians will spend 11 nights in Italy, Americans and Koreans 9, the British 7, the Spanish and Germans 6 and the Portuguese 5. Instead, 12,000 Italians will travel by plane around the peninsula during these 4 days, accounting for 19.2% of the grand total.
Saturday 30 March will be the busiest day for tourism in our Italian accommodation facilities, when average accommodation rates will reach EUR 154 for a double room.
The most popular destinations of the period certainly include the mountains of Trentino-Alto Adige but also Valle d'Aosta and the cities, with Rome in the lead, but also Liguria for early beach holidays, Tuscany, Abruzzo, Veneto and Campania, with their multi-product offerings.
THE GENERAL TREND
Since April 2023, airport passengers have consistently outperformed 2019, a record year for Italian tourism. The first figures for January 2024, with 12.6 million passengers, have far exceeded expectations (Source: ENIT Research Department on ASSAEROPORTI data).
Tourism to Italy in 2023 recorded a sharp growth and recovery compared to the past, with more than 125 million tourist arrivals in accommodation facilities in Italy (+5.5% compared to 2022), 62.8 million of whom were foreign tourists (+14.0% compared to 2022). The overall flows, therefore, count more than 431 million overnight stays in Italian accommodation facilities (+4.6% vs 2022), 222.6 million of whom were foreign tourists (+10.7% vs 2022).
"In 2019 we counted 220 million international presences. We have now fully recovered and are exceeding - albeit only slightly (0.9 per cent) - the values of 2023. The time has therefore come to stop thinking only about recovering volume and refocus our attention on the subjects of quality, value enhancement and sustainability, especially of the social and environmental kinds. To do this, we must work hard on the offer to dynamise and strengthen our ability to attract international markets throughout the year, especially in the shoulder seasons. The 2023 figures are comforting because the foreign share was already more incisive in the spring months and in the two-month period September-October”, commented Alessandra Priante, President of Enit. Sustainability, including economic sustainability, is therefore crucial "and the numbers are proving us right: between January and December 2023, Italy's balance of tourism payments registers a surplus of more than 20.2 billion euros, an increase of +10.7% compared to 2022, with a growth in spending by foreign travellers in Italy that registers a 16.6% rise in the provisional total data for 2023," Priante concludes.
According to official Eurostat data, in 2023 Italy will be the second top destination for international (and total) presences in Europe. A Europe that leads the destinations for 2024 and 2025 in terms of growth in overnight stays, where Italy (+15%) is second behind Germany (+19%), which, however, owes most of its growth to the domestic market.
Lombardy, Lazio, Veneto and Tuscany are the main destinations for international tourism, both in terms of arrivals and overnight stays, and also in terms of tourist expenditure from abroad which, in 2023, will reach 51.6 billion euros in Italy as a whole.
Of the 85.7 million international travellers in 2023, some 15 million came for business, nearly 35 million for a holiday, and over 11 million to visit friends and relatives, root tourism being one of the main vectors of foreign tourism, especially from distant markets.
Foreigners spend EUR 32 billion on holidays to Italy, 62.2% of the 2023 total, an increase of about +21.0% compared to 2022. Revenues from business travel, totalling more than EUR 7.3 billion, account for 14.2% and grew by +14.0% compared to 2022.