AGI – The Covid dropped the spending of foreign tourists in Italy by almost 27 billion euros in 2020: with the lockdowns and restrictions imposed by the health emergency, the tourism sector turnover arriving from abroad has contracted by more than 60%, from 44 billion in 2019 to 17 billion last year. In absolute terms, June was the month in which there was the greatest drop, equal to 3.6 billion, while in April more than 90% of “foreign” collections were lost. These are the main data of an analysis by the Unimpresa Study Center on spending on tourism, in our country, by foreigners, which fell from 41.7 billion in 2018 and from 44.3 billion in 2019 to 17.3 billion in 2020. .
“The pandemic has literally demolished one of the most important economic sectors in our country. Our concern, after a year that has dramatic numbers, not only with regard to the expenditure of foreign tourists, concerns this year and in particular the next summer season. – comments the vice president of Unimpresa, Giuseppe Spadafora – we do not know yet how the pass will work, has not been fully explained how the quarantine will be regulated for those arriving from overseas, it is not clear at what time the curfew will be fixed: these are not details, but essential elements in the programming logic of the operators in the sector: I am referring to hoteliers, restaurateurs, owners of bari, managers of bathing beaches, the transport sector and the list is long. The uncertainty of the government has already led to a flurry of cancellations and a good part of next season’s turnover will go up in smoke “.
According to the analysis of the Unimpresa Study Center, which processed data from the Bank of Italy and the Ministry of Economy, in 2020 the expenditure of foreign tourists stood at 17.3 billion, down by 26.9 billion (- 60.9%) compared to 2019. The worst period was the second quarter which coincides with the lockdown decided by the government to deal with the first wave of Covid: the turnover lost in the months of April, May and June, overall, was equal to 10.1 billion (-84.7%), from 12.1 billion in the second quarter of 2019 to 1.8 billion in the second quarter of 2020.
In the January-March period, on the other hand, the loss in turnover linked to the lower “foreign” presence in our country amounted to 2.3 billion (-34.5%), from 6.7 billion in the first quarter of 2019 to 4, 3 billion in the first quarter of 2020. In the third quarter of last year, however, the loss was equal to 7.7 billion (-46.4%), from 16.7 billion in the period July-September 2019 to 9 billion in the period July-September 2020. Between October and December, then, the decrease in turnover linked to the lower presence of foreign tourists in Italy amounted to 6.6 billion (-76.0%), from 8.7 billion in the fourth quarter of 2019 to 2.1 billion in the fourth quarter of 2020.
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