Rome continues to grow, but the coastline still suffers from a drop in consumption

The growth of tourism in Rome has not come to a halt this summer either, in anticipation of the Jubilee 2025 when up to 32 million pilgrims are expected in the city. The challenge now is to study formulas to extend the positive effects of arrivals in Rome to other areas of the region. Starting from the coastline where, with a few exceptions in the most famous places in the north and south of the region, the majority of customers are from the 4.2 million inhabitants of the province of Rome, and are therefore more subject to seasonality and the drop in consumption due to rising inflation.

"The latest tourism figures for Rome make us proud," explains Giuseppe De Martino, president of the Tourism and Leisure Industry section of Unindustria. 'Room occupancy,' he emphasises, 'has reached 83% against an average of 73% in other major European capitals. The strategy of big sporting events and concerts is working, capable of prolonging the presence of tourists in the city'. Last year, according to data from the Bilateral Tourism Board of Lazio, arrivals in all accommodation facilities in the city of Rome grew by 8.1% compared to 2019, the last pre-Covid golden year. If the growth trend recorded in the first four months of the year (between 6 and 9 per cent) were to continue, almost 23 million tourists could arrive in the city in 2024, which would exceed the threshold of 50 million days of presence in accommodation facilities. In this perspective, the Jubilee is an opportunity to make these numbers structural. "There will be important investments, such as the redevelopment of Termini Station and the surrounding area," explains De Martino.

The situation is different for the coastline, which has so far been penalised by variable weather and the drop in consumption due to the continuing effects of the high inflation of recent months. "In May and June we recorded -40% compared to last year, with a smaller drop, of 10-15%, at weekends," explains the president of Federbalneari Italia Marco Maurelli, who is also very familiar with the map of establishments in Lazio. "The forecasts for July-August should mark a -10%, with sold-out concentrated from the third week of July until mid-August. The most popular resorts in the northern and southern areas of the coastline, such as Terracina, Gaeta, Ponza, Ventotene, and Formia, will do well. We are now working to bring foreign tourists who come to Rome to the coast, too,' he concludes.