ANCONA – Take a widespread industry with over 50 thousand employees, capable of serving two and a half million customers in the last year. This is the identikit of the tourist offer in the Marche region, divided into 9,347 businesses active as of March 31st, according to the latest report from the Chamber of Commerce. 80% of them (exactly 7,560) deal with catering and the rest is divided between accommodation activities (1,448) and agencies and tour operators (366). In the last year the Marche tourism industry has lost around 500 companies but has gained over 1,200 employees, rising to a total of 52,672.
The excellences
According to a study dedicated by Cassa Depositi e Prestiti to the excellence of the Marche economy, in our region tourism activities generate an added value equal to 1.4 billion euros, a share equal to approximately 3.5% of the regional GDP. But the data referred to 2020, a year marked by Covid, when the sector had just over 9 thousand accommodation establishments (hotels, bars, restaurants, farmhouses) employing around 45 thousand workers, equal to 7.2% of the regional workforce. Now the tourism sector has grown and the impact on GDP and employment could also be greater.
The tourist hospitality industry is concentrated above all in the two northernmost provinces, with Ancona leading both in terms of number of businesses and employees (2,472 and 15,554) followed by Pesaro with 2,357 and 13,207. Macerata is the third largest, with 1,854 companies that employ 10,117 people. Marche tourism businesses and workers welcomed 2,567,073 visitors in 2023, for a total of 11,265,073 presences (the number of nights spent in hotels or non-hotel facilities). Tourists arriving mainly from Italy (80% of the total), while among foreigners there were increases especially from Poland (+38%), France (+14.35%), the Netherlands (+5.33% ) and Germany (+5.32%).
Expected hires
And tourism is among the main employment opportunities even at the beginning of summer. In the latest Excelsior survey by Unioncamere, which measures companies’ intentions to sign new employment contracts, out of 17,470 hirings expected in the Marche in the month of June, over a third (6,070) concern tourism, albeit with a slight decline (-2 .1%) compared to May. The opportunities for operators and employees in catering activities are increasing: for them the employment contracts offered by companies in the Marche reach 5,710, compared to around three thousand in the previous month.
Not just summer
One of the ever-present themes in the debate on how to boost tourism in the Marche is to extend the arrival season as much as possible and not limit it to the summer quarter. «A clear imbalance is highlighted in the monthly distribution of arrivals and presences which sees the flows concentrated in the months of July and August – we read in the 2024 annual tourism program of the Marche Region -, although arrivals and presences recorded in the low season months demonstrate a timid improvement, implementing deseasonalization policies remains a priority. It is important to highlight how, in contrast, the foreign market is not concentrated exclusively in the peak season periods, but is also distributed in the months of April, May, June and September”. In recent days, the Marche Region has dedicated a tender to the objective of deseasonalization, which provides incentives to support promotional-marketing and tourism deseasonalization activities. It will be possible to submit applications through the web platform until midday on 13 September 2024. This is a two-year measure, dedicated to supporting operators who, through targeted promotion and marketing actions, market packages with stays in the region. The objective is to direct demand during periods of lower tourist influx. The resources deployed are 440,000, to be divided into two lines of action. Promo-marketing, aimed at contributions to encourage tour operators in Incoming Marche to carry out promotional and marketing activities for the regional tourism product. And then the actual deseasonalization, with contributions to travel agencies and tour operators that guarantee incoming tourist flows in the months of lower influx.
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