By Enrico Conti
2022 represented a fundamental turning point for world tourism after two years of deep crisis caused by Covid-19. For Tuscany, 2022 marks, after the rebound in 2021, a further recovery in flows (+36.6% attendances on 2021) and the approach to pre-pandemic levels (-8.2 compared to 2019), in line with what is happening at the national level. The protagonist of the recovery is international tourism, whose presences increase by 92% on 2021, reducing the gap compared to 2019 levels to -12%. The national market is growing (+5% compared to 2021 the presences of Italians), despite the reopening of international destinations, and the gap with respect to pre-pandemic levels is almost zero (-3.8% on 2019). Overall, the first quarter of 2023 confirms the growth trend compared to 2022 (+36.6% attendances) but there is still around 20% of attendances to recover compared to 2019 and unknown factors and significant challenges remain on some important markets, firstly non-Europeans, secondly domestic.
The Tuscan tourism system has therefore once again shown its resilience and a good ability to seize the recovery. It did so despite the permanence of some constraints and challenges, such as the incomplete reopening of significant non-European markets of origin and an inflationary trend that has reduced household spending power; he did so despite the fact that the resumption of Italian travel abroad has rekindled competition for the national market, calling into question the buffer represented in the toughest years of Covid by regional internal markets.
The resilience of Tuscany originates above all from the richness and proximity of the attractions present in its territory, which in a limited space and time environment offers extremely heterogeneous motivations and types of tourist experience and all of great attraction for the tourist. The accommodation and local offer has been able to adapt to the changing needs of a consumer who, during the toughest moments of the contagion, found in many Tuscan destinations places and experiences capable of guaranteeing social distancing and health security, and who today even more of yesterday is looking for authenticity and relaxation, for an outdoor experience; a tourist who has been returning in recent months to visit the cities of art en masse. A traveller, therefore, whose needs continue to change rapidly, more attentive to the relationship between quality and price, often having to deal with a lower purchasing power. Responding to or anticipating the changing needs and desires of this ever-changing subject is the main challenge that the regional tourism system still has to face today.
The Tuscan tourism system has been able to grasp the sense of this challenge, and therefore also to take full advantage of the recovery in flows and spending, thanks to some of its structural characteristics, which we thought it important to recall at the beginning of this report. In fact, tourist consumption and the resulting economic activity represent an important share of the added value and work produced and employed in our region. The tourist economy deeply characterizes many of our local production systems, representing an element of strength but also posing non-trivial challenges to the regional socio-economic system. The pandemic has made it clear that tourism is an activity deeply rooted in the way of life of the citizens of the developed world, it constitutes a fundamental need for it, therefore itself to some extent unavoidable and resilient to the worst crises; secondly, it emerged that Tuscany continues to be one of the most desired destinations in the world, and will remain so for a long time to come.
Studying tourism and its economic, social and environmental impacts on our territories therefore remains a fascinating and important task, as it questions the future of economic development and well-being in Tuscany.
Dicitura Bibliografica: IRPET, 2023
