Genoa. The summer season for children has begun amidst many uncertainties Ligurian hoteliers and in particular for Genoa and his coastal locations. If the month of June is guaranteeing a good seal, the same cannot be said today for July and August which still show several holes in the planner from the reservations. A phenomenon that has various explanations, according to sector operators.
“Now he has recovered Nice weather and in fact we can see an improvement in bookings: let’s hope it lasts – he sighs Aldo Werdinpresident of Federalberghi Liguria and entrepreneur rooted in Tigullio -. Beyond this Italian tourism is suffering a bit and therefore overnight stays are shortened. Fortunately, foreign tourism is still strong.”
To largely explain the (at least apparent) decline would therefore be the economic situation of our country: “It is a more accentuated trend than last year – continues Werdin -. There is less desire for holidays, we also see it from the consumption in restaurants which is decreasing. Also the luxury market suffers a contraction: after the elections the stock markets went badly and even entrepreneurs calmed down. We can’t blame the motorways and trains, that inconvenience has always been there in Liguria, year by year”.
Could it be that Liguria has become less attractive? “No, because in that case the foreigners they wouldn’t come and instead we continue to see them – replies the president of the hoteliers -. Liguria is always an excellent destination, recently also with the development of Genoa which was not considered a cultural destination. THE French they are growing and tourists are increasing Eastern European countries such as Poland, Hungary and Bulgaria. The Swiss they stood at around 10-12% of the total, the English have decreased somewhat since Brexit, i Germans they have more problems than us and they have decreased. Excluding regular customers who stay for even two or three weeks, these are mainly short stays, two or at most three nights: often they travel the golden route and stop in Portofino and the Cinque Terre passing through Rome, Florence, Venice, Lake Como and Milan”.
In short, the current photography is chiaroscuro and for now there are no periods sold out in sight: “June is also holding thanks to meeting and meetingsunlike past years when we tried to develop only pure holiday tourism. In July and August we are suffering because this component is missing and these are the high season months with the highest prices. And it’s not as if by lowering prices at the last minute we encourage foreigners to come, as they are customers who have to plan their trips in advance. Now we hope that the increase in air transport costs will have an impact on the Italian market: maybe those who wanted to go to Sardinia or Sicily will opt to stay a little closer”.
Similar situation in the capitalas he says Laura Sailispresident of Federalberghi Genova: “We are recording a decline compared to 2023, but the aspect we notice most is that lots of bookings arrive last minute, whereas last year we could plan well in advance. We have a very short horizon and this doesn’t make us work very well. In general we record attendance lower than 2023, hotels are almost never full“.
Even in Genoa there is a decline in Italian tourism, while foreigners overall hold upin particular Swiss, French and Americans which now represent a consolidated market. The hit and run is always in the majority, even if “we find an improvement, with a average of 2-3 days even during the midweek period – explains Sailis -. Someone stops even a weekbut I wouldn’t dare to talk about a reversal of the trend, also because they are customers who come often”.
And in general we observe a change in habits of customers: “Here too, having had conferences and events related to businesswe recorded many attendances in May and June, but we are behind in July and August planning they are quite empty. In September, however, we already see a bit of recovery. Weekends start with many free rooms, then maybe they fill up at the last minute with reservations arriving on Friday or Saturday itself. In past years we recorded fill rates at 50-60% for the following week, now we travel around 30% with possible increase”.
On the other hand it is possible that these dynamics do not concern the extent of tourist flows, but simply their distribution: “It may be that there are more operators in Genoa, and I am not referring to hotels but to holiday homes and other accommodation facilities – reflects Sailis -. It will be interesting to read the numbers of total attendance and tourist tax referring to the entire quarter. Certainly 2023 had been particularly positive not only for us but for Italy in general and repeating that result will be difficult“. Also Werdin sees the glass half full: “The sums will be drawn on December 31st. We can still replicate last year’s numbers by developing more low seasonthat is, October and November, to recover what we have lost.”
