Tourism, Summer: Bookings Higher Than in 2019, 1 in 3 are Foreigners

PRESS RELEASE

TOURISM, SUMMER: BOOKINGS HIGHER THAN IN 2019, 1 IN 3 ARE FOREIGNERS

HOLIDAYS ARE PLANNED, NO MORE LAST MINUTE: ALREADY THINKING AHEAD TO SEPTEMBER

TWO OUT OF 10 MORE ROOMS BOOKED THAN LAST YEAR

Tourism is experiencing a season of great recovery with travellers inclined to book in advance to the point of outperforming the 2019 figures. The ISNART and Unioncamere survey commissioned by ENIT to monitor hospitality trends in Italian hotel and complementary businesses between 30 June and 7 July 2023 shows encouraging signs for the high summer season.

Following a steady July in line with last year, there was a 20 percent increase in advance sales for tourist stays in August and September with a higher average than in 2022: on average 2 out of 10 more rooms booked. In July, 58.4 percent of available rooms/beds were already booked, rising to 83.6 percent for August and levelling off at around 48.9 percent for tourist stays in September.

‘Italy is again at the forefront of international tourism, which is poised to reach pre-pandemic levels. In August, 1 in 3 tourists are foreigners. Generally speaking, between July and September, 6 out of 10 operators report a stabilisation compared to last year in the bookings of foreign customers, and in just 3 out of 10 cases a growth that mainly regards tourists from Germany and France, followed by the USA and the Netherlands/Holland,’ comments Ivana Jelinic, ENIT President and CEO.

‘The reservations reported by Italian accommodation operators are higher than those sold in the summer of 2019, which, as we know, was a record year for the Italian tourism supply chain,’ explains Loretta Credaro, ISNART President, who adds: ‘These results are largely linked to Italian demand, which in the peak month of August represents 72% of the clientele of the facilities in our hospitality system, with a trend noted as stable, for the entire summer quarter, by 7 out of 10 operators.’

Of all categories, hotels (63.5% of available rooms booked for July, 84.3% for August and 45.7% for September) and agritourisms (July 66.9%, August 90.2%) are the main sales drivers, followed by B&Bs (68.5% July, 86.2% August) for the non-hotel sector.

Our mountain product is making up the ground lost last year, with bookings for this 2023 summer at 62% for the month of July and close to being sold out for August (88.2%), with 41.3% of sales already booked for September.

At the seaside, 54.8% of the available rooms are booked for July, less than last year, but with a recovery for stays planned for August, which reach an average of 81.7% of availability for the period (around 1 room more for every 10 compared to 2022) and 52.3% of bookings for September.

Good prospects also for accommodation managers in cities, with bookings exceeding those of 2022 throughout the quarter, with 57.6% of rooms booked for July, 82.5% average occupancy for August and 50.4% for September.

As for the management performance of businesses, 67.7% of operators estimate at least a balanced budget for 2023, optimistic forecasts thanks to the substantial bookings already recorded for the summer season but above all from good results for the first six months of 2023: an average of 35.2% of available rooms occupied in January (+7 percentage points compared to 2019), 33.8% in February (+4.6 p. p.), 36.6% in March (+4.5 p. p.), 39.7% in April (+2 p. p.), 46% in May (+5 p. p.) and 64.7% in June (+10.2 p. p.).

This positive trend in the first half of the year was driven, during the winter season, by the appeal of mountain accommodation facilities (between January and March, between 42% and 50% of the available rooms were sold); while the spring was characterised in a positive way above all by spa facilities (April 47.2%, May 56.5% sales) and the month of June by the good performance of lake resort facilities (70.2%)