Tourism, arrivals here are up 44% from the US and half of Europe

by Angela Baldi

Tourism’s sails are full. Reach and attendance are at pre-covid levels. Data from the 2022 Istat survey the territory published suggests this, and the figures, albeit tentative, highlight the excellent health of the sector. “Extraordinarily vital preliminary data confirm the sector which in the past two years has intensified the process of restoring the levels of access and presence achieved in 2019 – explains Massimo Guasconi, President of the Chamber of Commerce of Arezzo-Siena and Unioncamere – Arrivals in Arezzo grow by 39.1% compared to 2021. Still The number of tourists is below pre-pandemic levels but the difference is still more positive if the total figure for Tuscany is indicated. In absolute numbers, the province of Arezzo has about 574,000 tourists contributing 4.4% to the total regional arrivals.” Attendance is also increasing. “In the province, they represent + 33.2% – continues Guasconi – the number of overnight stays registered in the Arezzo region not only managing to return to pre-pandemic levels, but even surpassing them by 2.9% with 1 million 600 thousand overnight stays.

For the prospects for 2023, the projections made by Demoscopica for Tuscany point to a decisive increase in presence, which, to 50 million, is likely to represent the highest level since 2010 while, in terms of arrivals, with the assumption of 14 million the gap compared to until 2019 will still be filled. Where do tourists come from?The top three reference markets are always represented by Lazio, Lombardy and Tuscany.

For Arezzo’s foreign component, the first market is Germany followed by the United States and the Netherlands. “Particularly interesting – stresses Marco Randelini, Secretary General of the Chamber of Commerce – are the data indicating the origin of the tourists hosted in our facilities. Given that foreign tourism suffered in the period of the pandemic one of the most significant reductions, it is natural that in 2022 also tourist flows represent Foreigners increases much more than national ones.In the Prefecture of Arezzo, the number of arrivals grows by 44.1% compared to 2022 but remains below the 2019 figure (-8.3%), while overnight, with a growth of 24.4% in 2021, it regained and exceeded levels 2019 (+5.6%).”