Sport driving the Riviera Art City towards a boom

These days' heat waves certainly tempt people to seek refreshment at the seaside or in the mountains. Yet the stars of tourism this summer continue to be the cities of art in Central Italy. Rome, Florence, but also Perugia, see tourists, especially foreigners, take over museums, exhibitions, archaeological sites, and historic centres. Anticipating a 2024 that could have record numbers for Central Italy, after 2023 already exceeded pre-Covid levels in almost every location. All this while waiting for the Jubilee 2025, which, in addition to the beneficial effects on the increase in arrivals, is an opportunity to modernise infrastructures and make the current high levels of presences structural.

A different argument must be made for the bathing establishments and beaches, which should be the real protagonists of the summer season and which from the end of July to Ferragosto are about to be sold out. But which have also had to cope with a May-June that started off with the handbrake on account of bad weather at times. Here the challenge is on several fronts. On the one hand, there is the need to diversify the offer, to make the high season as long as possible (and also make it less weather-dependent). It is fundamental to improve connections with the rest of Europe and also to study integrated packages to entice foreign tourists (those less sensitive to cost increases) to travel a few days from the cities of art to the lidos.

In Emilia-Romagna, it is precisely the diversification of the tourist offer that is proving decisive: the summer season started with the Giro d' Italia stage, then there was the Formula 1 GP at Imola, and the historic Grand Departure of the Tour de France, which alone attracted 150,000 visitors. In the Marche region, the expansion of international summer routes to Poland (Cracow), Germany (Düsseldorf Niederrhein), and the United Kingdom (London Gatwick) to the Ancona-Falconara airport also bodes well for a season of large numbers. In Abruzzo, the diversification of the offer passes through cycle path tourism and the Trabocchi cycle-pedestrian path, 42 kilometres dedicated to sustainable mobility that run parallel to the sea and intertwine with other paths, a network of about 300 kilometres expressly dedicated to anyone who uses two wheels and not only to cycle enthusiasts.

Meanwhile, InfoCamere's figures show that in the regions of the Centre, the number of businesses operating in accommodation (from hotels to B&Bs) grew by 5.1% from 2019 to the first quarter of 2024 (Abruzzo, +11.1%, and Marche, +9.1%, topped the list). On the other hand, the activities that manage bathing establishments marked a +1.7% (here at the top is Lazio, +7%, followed by Abruzzo, +5.7%, and Tuscany, +4.1%).