School ends, families go to the seaside, or in any case on holiday: mountains, cities of art, lake or whatever they like best. An automatism that smacks of tradition for Tuscany, but which today, among inflation, poorer wages and precarious work, cannot be taken for granted. This June, however, seems to hold good omens. Tecnè’s investigation for Federalberghi goes in this direction, and so does the opinion, albeit with different nuances, of the experts. With a common denominator, however: the weather, the element that most of all influences the propensity to depart; in May, for example, it was so capricious that it even distracted even the most motivated people from the idea of a weekend away.
In June tourism starts again: according to the Tecnè survey, fifteen million Italians, half of them families with children, have their suitcases packed. For Roberto Guiggiani, professor of Evolution of tourist markets at the Campus Foundation of Lucca, all the conditions are there for «2024 to be a year of great numbers for tourism, even in Tuscany we are recovering the pre-pandemic pace, with a growth of 3-4 % every year. The numbers, so far, look positive.”
The cities of art favored by the weather
«The end of school has always marked the beginning of the traditional bathing season – he says Daniele Barbetti, regional president of Federalberghi – and of Italian summer holidays. We place many expectations on you, even if we have to deal with the contraction in spending capacity, eroded by inflation. And then the extremely negative weather forecasts this spring have put coastal companies in difficulty. From next week, we hope that between the closure of schools and the inversion of the weather, a more favorable context for travel will be created. So far the weather has been very difficult; the first week of June was much worse than previous years, blocking local tourism and the exodus of families. Events were decisive. Things are better for the cities of art, which are experiencing a moment of great international demand, and this is less affected by the effect of the weather: if a foreigner books a trip to Italy he doesn’t cancel it because of the rain: in fact the cities of art they are recording more attendance. Moreover – he specifies – it can be said that the current situation is the prolongation of the uncertainty that characterized the winter season in the mountains. Accommodation facilities today are increasingly flexible, they accommodate the customer even under the given date to change the period of stay.” And he concludes by underlining that «we support the guiding principle for tourism: same market, same rules; we will keep our attention high on tourist locations, which have grown significantly in number.”
Tuscan tourism trends
As for the prevailing trends of Tuscan tourism, Professor Guiggiani points out the persistence of «large consolidated trends: outdoor, sports, cultural and art city tourism, food and wine tourism, most of all linked to wine. Now seaside tourism begins, but every year it gets a little shorter: the time of the three months from 15 June to 15 September is compressing. Although September is now an all-round summer month, it is true that after the third Sunday of August the bathing season declines.” The triggering reason, according to the expert, is that «many prefer to diversify their holidays. And therefore they opt, also conditioned by their spending capacity, for a shorter stay at the seaside, in order to also afford another holiday, perhaps at the end of September-October, which has become a high season period”.
According to Guiggiani, the golden moment of the cities of art will continue until the scorching heat arrives. «The climate increasingly changes tourism in cities of art: if it is too hot, walking becomes difficult. We could observe this very clearly in 2023; and this summer too, if the scorching heat arrives, the mountain will gain from it. And again due to the climate factor, we will see more and more people decide on their holidays within a short period, based on today’s very precise weather forecasts. The narrow booking window will have an increasingly impact in the summer”.l
