The desperate situation of Italian tourism

Italian tourism has just sent a formal and extremely well-argued letter to the government of Giuseppe Conti, asking for emergency financial aid. Italy is the first Western country to be totally paralysed by the pandemic and also the one with the highest number of deaths in Europe. The transport and tourism sector there is at a complete standstill. « Most of the businesses are dead. Nothing works anymore. The health crisis has taken its toll on the Italian tourism industry » we now hear.

Yesterday, the largest transalpine tour operators launched a major campaign to collect signatures on a manifesto addressed to the government, declaring that the sector is essential for the country’s economy and that its collapse endangers a turnover of 230 billion euros per year.

Italian tourism tour operators explain that they understand the current blockade, that they know that the recovery will be long and slow, but they say that « immediate financial support is needed for tourism and events companies, which if they were to disappear would have a knock-on effect on employment and on the entire Italian economy ».

The main Italian tour operators are members of the Association of Italian Tourism Professionals, which represents 90% of the sector, and include : Alpitour World, Gattinoni Group, Robintur Travel Group, Alidays, Bluserena, Futura Vacanze, Giver, Ideas for Traveling, World Map Travel, Naar, Nicolaus-Valtur, Ota Viaggi, TH Resorts, Trinity Study Tours, Uvet or Veratour.