Italy’s national tourist office, Agenzia Nazionale del Turismo (ENIT) says that prospects for 2011 arrivals are good and points to markets in North America, India and Russia as potentially holding special promise.
Bank of Italy data from January to September 2010, released in December, show that expenditure from foreigners hit €23.7 billion, up +0.9% over the same period in 2009. This small rise in spending is expected to pick up pace this year in line with the results of monitoring conducted in major inbound markets by ENIT. The most encouraging signs have come from US and Canadian tour operators who have had record increases in sales of 25%, with tourists favouring the large Italian cities and the mountains.
“Excellent performances” have also been seen from India, up by 29% though from a smaller base, with growing demand for holidays that include lakes, mountains and cities, while there has also been a recovery from Japan where Italy has carved out an important position for itself. In China, demand has been for cultural tourism and leisure.
Europe was less buoyant. German-speaking markets such as Germany, Austria and Switzerland were stable while sales to the UK market were still in negative territory at the end of last year. During the Christmas season sales to Sweden petered out after a good 2010 but the opposite was true in Russia where Christmas resulted in bumper growth of +24%.
