Italy and ENIT deploy in Northern Europe: six months of non-stop campaigning and a return to pre-pandemic levels
PRESS RELEASE
ITALY STRENGTHENS IN SWEDEN
ENIT DEPLOYS IN NORTHERN EUROPE: SIX MONTHS OF NON-STOP CAMPAIGNING AND A RETURN TO PRE-PANDEMIC LEVELS
AIRLINE BOOKINGS FROM DENMARK REGAIN PRE-COVID VOLUME, SWEDEN'S ARE AT 74%
Italy and ENIT are unstoppable in Scandinavia In order to keep interest in Italy strong and alive, the Italian National Tourism Board launched a promotional campaign that began in June 2021 and has just ended, using all the communication channels of Ticket, the largest travel agency chain in the area (Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Finland) through thematic holiday proposals on Italy microsites in the various local languages accessible from sites, social networks and newsletters, as well as with Italy shop windows in Ticket shops in Sweden and Norway. At a time of great challenges for the entire tourism trade, the desire to return to travel was strong and the upturn in bookings for Italian destinations saw a return to pre-pandemic levels.
The outlook for international travel in Italy shows that some northern European markets are returning to 2019 levels. Overall, those five countries accounted for around 1.9 million travellers (-0.9% compared to 2018), almost 11.5 million nights (-6.9%) and around 1.3 billion euros in economic revenue (+3.5%). Lombardy is the region that receives the highest share of total Scandinavian spending in Italy: Finland (30.2%), Norway (34.2%) and Sweden (24.3%). Travellers from Denmark and Iceland concentrated 19.8% and 32.9% respectively of their total Italian spending in Veneto. In terms of spending, cultural holidays in Italy are the most popular with travellers from Northern European countries. For the fourth quarter of 2021, airline bookings from Denmark regained their pre-Covid volume, while those from Sweden are at 74%. In detail, visitors to Italy from Denmark have increased by +17.2% compared to 2018, nights are 9.5% higher and spending is up by +34%. Travellers from Sweden are up (+1.8%) as is revenue (around +4.0%).
"Travellers from Northern Europe are invaluable for the revival of our cities of art,” - says ENIT President Giorgio Palmucci. “Visitors from Sweden invest 36.4% of the total expenditure, which in 2019 was 363 million euros, while Denmark spends 35.6% on 600 million euros, Finland 29.4% on 113 million euros, Norway 22% on 183 million euros and finally Iceland 60% on 17 million euros.
Active tourism also benefits. Finland spends 7% of the total, Sweden 4.2%, Denmark 2.4% and Norway close to 2.0%. MICE figures in as well: business travel to Italy is a segment that accounts for 12.5% of total travel expenditure for Denmark, around 8% for Finland, 17.7% for Norway and 18.5% for Sweden,” Palmucci concludes.
Francesca Cicatelli
ENIT Press Office
Mob: (+39) 392.9225216
e-mail: francesca.cicatelli@enit.it