After the pandemic, Italians started traveling again, but not like before. The cause is the high cost of living, as clearly emerges from a survey by Altroconsumo on tourist services which involved almost 2,000 travellers. In fact, approximately a third of those interviewed declared that they travel less compared to pre-pandemic, and of these, 60% cited the lower economic availability and the increasingly higher prices of tourist services as reasons.
In short, those who travel have to deal with the impact of inflation, which has increased the prices of consumer goods – and not only – and reduced the purchasing power of salaries. But the increase in cost of some tourist services has also had a significant impact, such as the +40% of air travel and the +13% of train fares compared to the summer of 2022. In this context, then, the situation of global instability certainly does not help to calmly plan a trip: the In fact, 17% of those interviewed travel less due to fear of factors such as terrorism and diseases.
What is lacking is therefore mostly economic resources and not the desire to travel. Thus, if 73% of those interviewed travel to relax, visit new places and have new experiences, the survey reveals that the majority of those interviewed, when travelling, consider monuments and cultural history very important (94%), museums , concerts and all the cultural offerings (89%), as well as the possibility of immersing oneself in nature (93%).
It is therefore not surprising – explains Altroconsumo – that among the non-European countries the most visited is Jordan, appreciated above all for its cultural offering and monuments, with a satisfaction index of 84 points out of 100, followed by the United States and the United Arab Emirates, respectively with 82 and 76 points. Among the cities most loved by Italians we find Lisbon tied with Berlin, followed by Barcelona, Madrid and Budapest.
Finally, Altroconsumo recalls a ‘topic’ that puts Italians’ travel at risk: the waiting times to obtain or renew a passport. In fact, Altroconsumo’s investigations have long reported that in many cities people wait up to 10 months for an appointment at the police station and in some (6 out of 17) it is not even possible to even book an appointment on the online platform of the State Police. For this reason, the Organization has launched a petition – which can be signed on the website www.altroconsumo.it/passaporti – to ask the institutions for a series of interventions to guarantee faster times and reduce the cost of issuing passports, which today amounts to 116 euros.
