The investigation

Tourism, with high beach prices in July -15% of presences

Lido and restaurant prices are weighing on the reduced availability of families. Widespread falls in Tuscany, Puglia, Emilia-Romagna. But holidays are also changing

8 August 2025

4' min read

"Don't tell us it is a price problem because it is not. If there have been any increases they have been around 3 or 4%, in line with inflation'. Antonio Capacchione, president of the Italian Bathers' Union, a member of Fipe Confcommercio, does not mince his words and tries to defend the category by denying many consumer associations. In reality, the expensive beach is being felt with prices now reaching 60 euro per day in Salento and other locations.

The conjunctural data for July on June 2025 tells of a price increase of 3.7 % but, according to Massimiliano Dona of Consumatori.it, 'what we are experiencing is still an optical effect of the surge of two summers ago that caused prices to rise by 16 %'.

"In my bathing establishment in Margherita di Savoia (Barletta-Andria-Trani. ed.) - Capacchione, the president of the bathing attendants, goes on - a beach umbrella with two deckchairs and a chair for four people, with access to all services, including parking and the possibility of bringing food from home costs 25 euro a day. Yet during the week out of 12 rows I only occupied three. Of course, then at the weekend it is full". Apart from the high prices, the figures for the end of July are rather telling. According to the bathers, the drop in the number of visitors, from Tuscany to Apulia, was at least 15% after a June that was promising and a May whose rainy weather caused many difficulties.

Families have less money to spend

The issue according to Capacchione is essentially one: 'families have less money to spend and therefore save on the first thing they can cut back on, holidays. Of course geopolitical issues and the expectation of a worsening economy due to tariffs do not help either. A situation we share with the Germans, who are also being penalised by this economic situation, all to the benefit of new middle classes who are increasing their spending power, such as those in Croatia, Poland and the Czech Republic'.

Then, concludes the president of the bathers, if we want to blame our category 'as a national sport, as is done with taxi drivers and hawkers, we can do so, but that is not the point'.

Bruno Murzi, Mayor of Forte dei Marmi, is also convinced that there is an issue linked to the salary crisis that penalises Italians in particular. "If we also think about those who in theory should not be doing badly, such as, for example, a hospital doctor, who earns about three thousand euro, we have to admit that with that budget in Versilia a family of four cannot do much.

The figures that Murzi lists are very high, a hotel room for two people 'in Camaiore or Viareggio now flies at around 200 euro, all inclusive, and therefore, if it goes well, you have to count on spending around two hundred and fifty euro per person per day, including restaurant and beach'. This is despite the fact,' continues Murzi, 'that there has been a big drop in the number of visitors from Russia lately. We have gone from around 27 thousand a year to not even 5 thousand. With whom have we replaced them? With many tourists from Arab countries and the United States'.

It must also be said that in this context what was once almost a tradition, i.e., renting a house for the month of July and August, has become almost prohibitive with prices 'reaching 12 thousand or 14 thousand euro per month'. In short,' the mayor concludes, 'let's not ask why so many then choose the Red Sea at a thousand euro all-inclusive per week.

Patrizia Rinaldis, president of Federalberghi Rimini, on the other hand, shifts the question to how tourism is changing and how this also affects consumption such as that of the beach. "The reality is that those who offer quality services are rewarded. Compared to a few years ago, the world has changed completely. The fifteen-day holiday at the beach in the same beach umbrella no longer exists. Foreigners on the Riviera stay five or six days while Italians stay around three. I take the example of a Polish family, they booked a beach one day, a different one the second. Then they went inland to visit the medieval villages and finally took a taxi and spent a day in Florence'.

Hotels have basically held up

The bottom line is that hotels have basically held up compared to last year, while purely beach tourism has changed its habits somewhat. "It moves perhaps in the first months of summer while it tends to avoid the periods that are classically more crowded". In the meantime, on Saturday from Cattolica to Bellaria, the lifeguards have called for a strike because they will double the space of the foreshore to be controlled. Preceptions are not excluded.