Tourists decreasing in Ferrara, meanwhile Comacchio flies Gazzetta di Modena

Ferrara The city of art has not yet managed to return tourist levels pre-pandemic, while Comacchio has largely surpassed them. And the comparison with the other regional capitals that focus on artistic tourism, almost all of them positively, makes us reflect at least on the choice to combine the promotion of Castle and Schifanoia to that of the Romagna coast, instead of Bologna and the art City of the Via Emilia. The debate on these issues, which have always been divisive, is reopened by the dossier of the Ires study centre, which compares the main tourist centers of Emilia Romagna from the demand side, where at least there is an increase in the average stay of tourists in city, and opens a focus also on the supply of beds: here too Ferrara is among the few minuses. Arrivals and attendance The numbers of Ferrara and Comacchio are indeed divergent. Last year, the capital brought 24,523 fewer tourist arrivals compared to 2019, equal to 9.6%, while the attendance figure is less negative: -18,742 (-3.9%), which means that fewer visitors but with a period of stay a little longer, and this was one of the objectives of the programming. It should be noted that these are the data corrected in the last few days by Istat, and are slightly different from those contained in the report released yesterday. In the same period, Bologna recorded +5.8% in arrivals and 10.4 in attendance, Modena and Parma also did very well, while Ravenna held its ground despite the flood; Piacenza and Forlì are swinging, with Rimini and Reggio Emilia especially doing badly (-25.4 and -18.7, the latter). Comacchio, on the other hand, did better than almost all its maritime competitors, with 16,252 more arrivals than pre-Covid (+5.8%) and a growth of 80,311 presences (+4%). In fact, only Cesenatico fared better, demonstrating how many problems the ban on the Russian tourism, as well as the problems. As regards the availability of beds, Ires compared only the provincial capitals: Ferrara shows the sharpest decline after that of Ravenna, with -3.3% equal to 124 beds. In this context, however, airbnb-type accommodation, defined as “rental accommodation managed in an entrepreneurial manner”, has grown, recording increases in double or even triple figures everywhere, with Ferrara which settled at 59.9% growth, equal to 478 incremental beds.

The analysis

Going in depth on Ferrara, always with the correct data, we can see how the generalized decline can be attributed to mostly to foreigners, which recorded a -22.9% compared to 2019 in terms of arrivals, which is reduced to -13 in terms of attendance. In the same period, Italian arrivals fell by 3.5%, while presences increased by 0.5%. The total average number of overnight stays rises to 2 days, with foreigners naturally staying longer. «It can certainly be said – is the analysis of Giuliano Guietti, from Ferrara and president of Ires – that there is a strong tendency towards an increase in tourism in large cities, such as Bologna and Modena, while Ferrara is not aligned. The visit to historical sites and monuments is certainly a trend, but the same can be said for naturalistic places, which after Covid have been rediscovered: just look at what happens on the main roads of the Apennines. From this perspective, it is probable that Comacchio, among the best tourist locations ever, has been benefited by an offer that is not limited to beaches and the sea, but also includes the Delta Park, the Valleys, cycle tourism». It is difficult to delve deeper into the analysis of the decline in foreign tourism, because the Russian tourism has always been residual under the Castle (but also among the beach umbrellas): there may have been a backlash from the almost blockade of arrivals from the East, given that in the last pre-Covid years the flow from China in particular had become promising, but in fact the city of art seems to lack contributions from more traditional basins such as France, Germany and Spain. The failure to connect with Bologna may have had an impact literally carried away by low cost flights at Marconi, and with the rest of the art cities on the Via Emilia? «We are not able to evaluate these aspects, it is certain that the Bologna data are notable – is Guietti’s reasoning – The exhibitions? In reality, it is precisely the monumental historic centres, in line with the national trend, that are generally rewarded.”