By searching on one of the major accommodation booking portals for a room in Florence for the long weekend of April 25th, only around ninety solutions are offered throughout the city. «98% of facilities are not available for your dates on our site” warns the platform. Florence is not sold out during these holidays but we’re close.
«Despite the weather which discourages out-of-town and last-minute tourists, attendance is important: the city is not full but it’s very close. If there had been good weather it would have been full. The tourists are mainly foreigners, Americans and French in the lead” comments Claudio Bianchi, president of Confesercenti metropolitan Florence.
According to the investigation of Tourist Studies Center, for Confesercenti Tuscanythe overnight stays expected in the official accommodation facilities of the region are approximately 640 thousand.
The average saturation rate found for cities and art centers stands at 93%. For seaside locations the average occupancy of the structures is 71% and the structures in the mountain areas stop at 67%. For spa and hill towns the rates recorded are 84% and 88% respectively. The most popular Tuscan destination is the Val d’Orcia with an occupancy of 95% of the beds.
For Stefano Rosselli president of Confindustria Alberghi Firenze, room occupancy in the Tuscan capital «is around 90%. The busiest are the 3-star and non-hotel hotels, while the 4- and 5-star hotels are not yet at their maximum level.”
If the cities of art are crowded with tourists, “the coast suffers a bit, due to the weather which has not been favourable”. The Florentine tourist season promises to be good «even if some factors such as petty crime worries us: the American market is strong, but it is also very sensitive to dangerous news that can cross the ocean, and which could negatively influence arrivals from the USA.”
Daniele Barbetti, president of Federalberghi Toscana speaks of «very positive numbers, both for the international market and for the domestic market. The situation in seaside resorts is less brilliant, but in Abetone you can ski. It’s a good bridge, with lots of events and movement.”
The uncertain weather it hasn’t slowed down arrivals in the city, in fact it’s heading towards a full house. «Spa and food and wine tourism are the most popular», explains Irene Floris, president of the tourism category of Confartigianato Imprese Firenze. For incoming, spring heralds a “summer full of arrivals especially from the United States and Nordic countries who choose Florence and Chianti for their holidays, not only hotels and B&Bs, but also the rental of exclusive private villas”.
For Aldo Cursano, president of Confcommercio Toscana, «Florence is very full, in accommodation, in restaurants, on the streets, in museums. But the issue of managing attendance remains: the risk is having to queue for everything.”
