Only 4% of Italians will opt for vacation abroad this year
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Economic reasons and health concerns has conditioned Italian’s choices for their vacation this year. According to a study, reported by Corriere Della Sera, Italy is set to experience a strong contraction in tourism which will be lead the country to suffer not only for the massive decrease in foreign arrivals but also for the Italian citizens who will avoid moving from their city or region.
Sicily remains the top destination of summer, while Lombardy is heavily penalised.
The survey predicted that of the 24 million people who will move, 86% will remain in Italy and only 4.8% will go abroad, compared to 26% in 2019.
Among those who will go on holiday between July and September , 76.4% chose the sea. Italian tourists, who will dare to move out of their own region, will go to the regions nearby: 83% of Sicilians and 70% of Sardinians, for example, will make the sea while staying in their own region.
The region that promises to be the main magnet for internal tourism in this particular season is Sicily, which is expected to host almost 3 million tourists, thus registering an increase of over 250,000 Italians, compared to last year.
Puglia and Campania follow, which however register a negative balance compared to 2019, with respectively -10% and -22% of tourists.
Sardinia is also expected to suffer a negative balance of -14%. Among the most significant drops, the figure of Lombardy is reported with even 800 thousand tourists less than in 2019. Lazio (780 thousand less), Marche (600 thousand) and Emilia Romagna (640 thousand) follow.
Fear of contagions and a deteriorated economic situation are the two main reasons for the choices of Italians. 30% of the interviewees cited these as the reasons that will keep 21 million Italians at home this summer.
31% of tourists say they have been influenced by the health situation linked to Covid regarding the choice of their vacation. The Italians seem to reward, compared to the past, those regions and areas of the country in which the virus has had a lesser impact or which offer sparsely populated internal areas where spacing is more easily guaranteed. Umbria, Abruzzo and Friuli Venezia Giulia, in fact, see their share of tourists increase substantially. Molise even doubles them compared to summer 2019.
