Nico Gronchi, President of Confesercenti Tuscany
Tourists continue to choose Tuscany and estimates for the long weekend of May 1st speak of around 500 thousand overnight stays, but the occupancy rate of the structures available online stops at 79%, 4 points less than the value detected in the same period last year. This is the picture that emerges from the monitoring of the Florence Tourist Study Center for Confesercenti Toscana on the main online booking platforms.
“In fact, it is the art cities of Tuscany that drive tourism over the May 1st long weekend, while Sea and Mountain suffer a significant slowdown – said Nico Gronchi, president of Confesercenti Toscana -. Weather forecasts don’t help but the offer of services and experiences in our cities allows those who choose Tuscany to have many alternatives even in the event of bad weather. If up until a few years ago, bookings arrived anyway and within reasonable times, today we tend to wait until the last minute to understand the weather, costs and possibilities of visiting favorite places with a selectivity which however rewards areas with a strong tourist vocation such as our Region”.
In particular, based on the monitoring of the CTS of Florence, the average occupancy of the accommodation facilities in the cities/art centers stands at 90%. For seaside locations the expected average rate is 70%. The rate recorded for mountain facilities (65%) and spa facilities (73%) is also below the regional average, while for hilly locations the saturation rises to 86%.
Tourist type Occupancy rates as of 04/29/2024
Average Cities/art centers 90%
Average Coastal locations 70%
Average Spa resorts 73%
Average Mountain locations 65%
Average Rural and hilly locations 86%
The areas with values above the regional average are Val di Chiana, Chianti, Mugello, Valdarno, Val d’Elsa and Val d’Orcia.
Regional areas Employment rates as of 04/29/2024
Chianti 86%
Versilia 71%
Val d’Orcia 82%
Maremma Coast 67%
Val di Chiana 90%
Etruscan Coast 72%
Valdelsa 83%
Elba Island 68%
Mugello 85%
Lunigiana 64%
Garfagnana 73%
Valdarno 80%
Apuan Coast 68%
Tuscany 79%
The survey data were obtained through the analysis of the availability of rooms and other accommodations on the Online Travel Agency portals. The monitoring of the Florence Tourist Studies Center has detected the saturation of the regional accommodation offer available for the May 1st long weekend, in the period 30 April / 5 May 2024.
