Sunbed and parasol, where you spend less
According to the Altroconsumo survey, over a five-year period, increases have reached 24%. The prices of 10 locations on the Peninsula
by Enrico Netti
This summer under the beach umbrella, Italians will find an average increase of 6 per cent, but for some resorts it is as high as 16 per cent, while the increase over the last five reaches 24 per cent. This is what is revealed by the annual survey by Altroconsumo, a large independent consumer organisation in Italia, which anonymously surveyed 222 beach establishments on the peninsula asking about the rates for the first week of August, from 2 to 8 August, in 10 locations: Lignano, Rimini, Senigallia, Viareggio, Palinuro, Alassio, Gallipoli, Alghero, Taormina-Giardini Naxos and Anzio. The Altroconsumo analysis highlights record increases, up to 16%, in Taormina and Giardini Naxos followed by Alghero (+14%) and Gallipoli (+10%). In the other destinations, increases ranged between 7 and 2%.
Record prices in Alassio: in the city of the Muretto dear to Hemingway for a beach umbrella and two sunbeds in the first row you spend, on average, 368 euro. At the opposite extreme, the record for convenience is conquered by Lignano Sabbiadoro with 164 euro per week. Considering the average of the first four rows, the average weekly cost is 238 euro in the first row, 229 euro in the second, 219 euro in the third and 210 euro from the fourth row onwards. Against a backdrop of constantly rising prices, free beaches represent the only economically viable alternative for many citizens. However, free spaces continue to shrink. An innovative tourism model comes from Spotorno, Liguria, where Mayor Mattia Fiorini has decided to increase the share of free beaches by guaranteeing essential services such as cleaning, rescue, showers and toilets at no extra cost to the community. The Liguria region is asking for 40 per cent of the beaches to be free. 'The free beach,' Fiorini explains, 'must not be a marginal area, but must be a central area of equal dignity to the beach establishments. In order to be dignified, it must offer minimum services free of charge. We offer them at no cost to the community because in the free beaches we have provided for the presence of concession kiosks that will generate their own economy and will be able to cover the costs of these services".
A great many, 79% according to the Altroconsumo survey, choose the free beach mainly for economic reasons, but for almost two thirds of Italians it also represents the possibility of choosing from day to day where to go.
