This year too, it will be “a summer at the seaside, beach style” but with higher rates (+7.9% compared to 2023, which had already seen increases of over 12.6%) and a drop in Italian visitors, partly offset by the increase in foreigners. This is what the Panorama Turismo – Mare Italia observatory of Jfc predicts, which ANSA is publishing in preview. Of a total of 407 million presences in the seaside sector (-1.1% on summer 2023 and -1.2% on 2019), the Italian ones will be 312 million 511 thousand with a decrease of 4.4% and therefore a loss of 14 million 511 thousand on 2023. At the same time, foreign presences will reach 94 million 513 thousand with a +11.6% (i.e. 9 million 823 thousand) on 2023. For the second consecutive year, the expense that must be sustained to be able to spend a holiday at the seaside has increased. Compared to summer 2022, 20.5% more must be paid, with much higher increase indices if we consider the restaurant sector alone (+24.5%). As for price increases related to hospitality, bars/ice cream parlors, travel costs, leisure and entertainment opportunities and public services in seaside resorts, in the two-year period these services have seen – all in a similar way – increases of around 20 percentage points. The only sector that has brought a lower increase, equal to +16.6% again in the two-year period, was that of beach services. The number of Italians on Italian beaches is decreasing, but not the desire for sun, sea and holidays. But where will they go? “The answer to this question is the most interesting but certainly not extremely positive for our tourism economy – explains Massimo Feruzzi, head of Jfc and the observatory – . In fact, the survey at a national level shows that there is an increase in summer trips by Italians, but also that the increase in tourist flows refers mainly to foreign seaside destinations, with Greece, Spain and Albania leading the way”. On the contrary, in Italy, seaside destinations will show fluctuating indicators both between the locations of the same seaside areas and between the various weeks, making the activity of the operators in the sector even more complex. “With a red alert – says Feruzzi – which is that of the month of August, which risks no longer being the classic month of ‘Italians’ holidays’: prices are too high, full only from 9 to 18 August and increasingly shorter stays in this month, with an average duration that is reduced by a good 2.1 nights”. For the summer of 2024, forecasts indicate a turnover – for the national seaside sector in its complexity – equal to 33 billion 191 million euros in substantial stability (+0.4%) compared to the summer season of 2023 and an increase of 4.2% compared to the summer season of 2019 (therefore in the pre-Covid era). “It is important to consider – explains Massimo Feruzzi, head of Jfc and the Observatory – that these increases in turnover are not linear with the increase in holiday prices, meaning that there is, on the part of our fellow countrymen and also foreign guests, a stronger attention to spending”. Specifically, for the summer of 2024, the turnover is expected to be divided as follows: that generated by Italian customers will be 23 billion 707 million with a decrease of 4.2% on the final data of summer 2023. The turnover generated by foreign customers will be 9 billion 484 million euros, with an increase of +14.3% on the final data of summer 2023.
