After two years of pandemic-related restrictions, Italy is looking forward to a good summer for tourism. For the first time, hotels in Italy are more crowded than in Spain and France, something that has never happened in recent years, Italian Tourism Minister Massimo Garavaglia said, media reported.
According to him, the goal is to reach the same level of tourism performance as 2019, which is considered the best year in the history of Italian tourism.
Positive expectations of the coming tourism boom are also caused by domestic tourists. The minister said. “I think that, paradoxically, these two terrible years of the pandemic have also brought something positive. The Italians got to know Italy better, they stayed at home and decided not to go abroad because they liked it here,” the Minister of Tourism said.
After the pandemic years, Italy’s hospitality industry is looking for a record number of new employees. About 390,000 positions are sought in these sectors, but in 40 percent of cases, establishments have difficulty finding the necessary staff.
Hoteliers complain about the availability of vacancies, and in many structures, there is not enough a third of the necessary staff. “Due to the pandemic, the hospitality and tourism industry cannot guarantee the minimum stability that existed before, and workers left in search of something else. They began to work as couriers, construction workers, warehouse workers, and drivers,” says Paolo Manca, president of the hoteliers association Federalberghi in Sardinia.
Italy will have to do without several international markets – not only Russia but the entire Far East, that is, China, Taiwan, Korea, and Japan, which are completely absent due to Covid. On the other hand, the Americans are expected to return in large numbers this summer.