Over 134 million arrivals and 451 million presences in accommodation establishments across the country. They are numbers from record those reported by Istat for Italian tourism in 2023 have never been recorded. “The estimates relating to the year 2023 record the highest values ever observed by tourism surveys”, says the Institute which reports a growth in 13.4% of the country.
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For Sicily there is a real one boomwith even a +17.1% compared to the previous year and approximately 5.7 million tourists.
Tourism 2023: the Italian report
More generally, the year 2023 ends with an extraordinary balance for the tourism sector Italian, as demonstrated by the reports published in recent days, with numbers that not only exceed expectations, but set a new historical record for national tourism. The trend sees Italy growing also in the future, like Sicily, which will be able to benefit from important access from the cruise sector, as we have had the opportunity to report in recent months on the pages of the Quotidiano di Sicilia.
But let’s go in order starting from the numbers. The result achieved by Italy and Sicily is particularly significant because it is the first data actually recorded post pandemic. The country recorded a growth of 13.4% in arrivals and 9.5% in tourist presences compared to 2022, i.e. 16 million arrivals and 39 million more presences.
The comparison carried out with 2019, the last pre-pandemic year, shows a growth of 3 million arrivals (+2.3%) and 14.5 million presences (+3.3%). A overcoming of pre-pandemic levels which highlights the resilience and centrality in the development policies of the Italian tourism sector.
Istat statistics
In Istat statistics, at a national level it is possible to see how the hotel establishments grow more in the Centre, with 17% more arrivals, while less in the South, with only 8.3% more. A balance of power that changes instead if we take into consideration non-hotel establishments, where the South is superior to both the Center and the North-East, which achieve similar results, and is instead only inferior to arrivals from the North-West, where the commercial power of Turin and Milan is strong, to which Genoa is also partially added. Powers of this part of Italy which are only beaten by the data achieved by Sicily and Sardinia, with results largely superior to even the rosiest expectations.
Tourism 2023: Sicily’s boom
Sicily, regarding tourism in 2023, recorded a performance even better than the national figure, with a growth of 17.1% in arrivals (5.7 million) and 11.3% in tourist presences (16.8 million) compared to 2022. Even compared to 2019, Sicily set records of growth: an increase of 11.4% in attendance and 11.8% in arrivals. This success is attributable, in large part, to the boom in non-hotel sectorwhich saw an increase of 25.2% compared to 2022, positioning Sicily as the second region for growth in this sector, immediately after Lazio (+31.5%) compared to a national growth of 11%.
Tourists who arrive in Sicily do so also trying to exploit holiday houses and bed and breakfasts with the aim of save compared to what can be the high prices of hotel facilities in the summer period, which is the period of greatest influx to the Island. The hotel sector itself is growing but decidedly more slowly: +11.3% of registered attendance. In Italy, to have a comparison with regional data, Lazio and Lombardy are the regions that have shown the greatest growth compared to 2022, thanks above all to the increase in tourist presences in the cities of Rome and Milan.
Those who arrive in Italy and more generally in Sicily are mostly foreign. Again according to Istat data, 2023 saw a clear prevalence of the foreign component among visitors, with 52.4% of tourist presences attributable to customers not resident in Italy. This figure reflects a robust recovery of international tourism also highlighted by the 10% of the country’s air traffic reached by the Catania Fontanarossa airport alone with around 7 million passengers. Immediately behind, the third national airport is Palermo with 5 million and 700 thousand passengers.
Tourism 2023: developments on the island
Growth for tourism in the region can be marked by the tourism sectorhospitalitywhich does not always present standard as high as those achieved by Emilia Romagna, Trentino Alto Adige, Puglia and Sardinia. In this sense, the non-hotel sector has made concrete steps forward, with cities such as Messina and Palermo benefiting in particular.
How tourists who decide to visit Sicily move and what they do is explained in the latest report Legambiente and Isnart “Traveling with the bike 2024”, published last month. Over 26% choose routes immersed in nature while almost 23% are attracted by the new cycle routes. THE cycle tourists they generated nearly 57 million attendances in 2023 with a turnover of over 5 billion euros throughout Italy. Numbers also confirmed for Sicily, with cities that believe in cycle tourism and are investing, as in the case of Syracuse.
And then again the teasustainable tourism, an objective to be spread especially in rural areas. This is the core on which the ‘Discovering Rural Sicily’ project is based, rated first in the regional ranking for funding dedicated to local action groups. The idea is the result of the cooperative work of seven Sicilian LAGs and involves the development of an inter-territorial cooperative model of sustainable tourism which was discussed last month in the Ragusa area.
In the meantime, in the direction of the needs of the tourism sector, the 2024 Budget Law, as announced in recent days by the Revenue Agency, confirmed the tourism bonus for 2024. The objective of the relief is to address the shortage of staff and guarantee employment stability, also establishing who the beneficiaries of this measure may be and how it is possible to obtain the tourism bonus.
