The Easter and Easter Monday period, despite the unfavorable weather forecast, will still be full of celebrations and affected by a notable flow of tourists. This is stated by various data provided by trade associations and sector bodies, which show how the anniversary will be experienced, both by people from Bergamo and by people outside the province and foreigners, in the name of restaurant lunches, holidays in various locations and also in Orobic capital.
Many at the restaurant
To get an idea with some numbers, just consider that almost one in five people from Bergamo, according to Confcommercio Bergamo, will celebrate by having lunch or dinner outside the home. Based on the presence of 2,305 restaurants and 3,070 public establishments in our territory, the association has estimated a total expenditure of over fourteen million three hundred thousand euros, an increase of 17 percent compared to the same period in 2023.
For take-away menus or dishes, however, an expense of over 556 thousand euros is expected at Easter and 463 thousand euros at Easter Monday. In all of this, it should however be considered that the increase in the cost of raw materials has led to an increase in restaurant prices, around five euros more for a complete menu.
Boom in hotel bookings
Moving on to hotels and accommodation facilities, according to data from Visit Bergamo, there were numerous bookings up until March 20th, with a growth of as much as 12 percent compared to the same period of the previous year. Furthermore, 75 percent of the tourists who will stay in the hotels in the city will come from abroad: in particular from Poland, Germany, Spain, the United Kingdom, France and Switzerland, but there will also be those from Northern Europe, the United States, Russia and Japan .
The booking rate is around sixty percent, while last year in the same period it was 48 percent. In 2024, however, bookings have slowed down due to the weather, which provides bad weather for the weekend. According to Federalberghi, spa and wellness center tourism is very popular among tourists, while there has been a decline in the lake area due to the rains over the weekend, although there have been no significant cancellations.
Mostly foreign tourists
Three out of four tourists are foreigners, furthermore bookings until next June are twenty percent more than the same as a year ago. In 2023 there were one million overnight stays in the city, double compared to ten years earlier. Tourists in Bergamo stay on average 2.1 nights in hotels and 2.8 in non-hotel facilities, which are less affected by the phenomenon of business tourism, where users stay on average for just one night.
As can be imagined, in these festive days, the flow of arrivals and departures at Orio airport will be more intense: according to available estimates, an average of 45 thousand passengers will pass through per day, for a total of 180 thousand between Friday and next Monday.
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