Deserted beaches, cities with zero traffic and no one walking to admire the monuments, Easter Monday outings canceled. For the second year, Easter does not bring families together nor does it kick off the season of trips and trips outside the city: Italy is red to curb the pandemic, everything, the beautiful country suffers and Sicily even more.
And to think that until 2019 the island was at the top of the most popular destinations for vacationers. The estimates are obviously all downward: an entire sector, driving the economy of Sicily, forced for the second consecutive year to lick its wounds due to the Coronavirus. Estimates on the turnover in smoke for the Easter weekend are around 200 million euros.
A deadweight loss that burns the accounts of companies, already shattered by a year of pandemic. But not only. Among seasonal workers who are not hired and reservations skipped, the “red zone” decided by the national government until Tuesday throughout Italy also crushes the hopes of those structures – such as farmhouses – which would have had all the credentials to ensure compliance security measures outside the home.
According to Coldiretti Sicilia, the more than 750 agritourisms on the island will have to deal with a drop in turnover on average over 60%. Yet, underlined Terranostra (the association of the Coldiretti Sicily sector), “the farmhouses are located in isolated areas, in family structures, with a limited number of beds and tables and with large open spaces”.
In general, the “red zone” has forced 90% of hotels to close. The few remaining open register very few presences linked to business customers. Of foreigners not even talking about it: perhaps, like all other tourists, they will arrive in the summer. At Easter, the entrances to the island are mostly those of Sicilians who study or work outside but who have maintained residence or domicile in the land of Trinacria.
Here is the exception of an armored Easter. The confirmation is in the data on passenger traffic released by Sicilian airports: over 50 thousand travelers have already arrived at the airports of Palermo, Catania and Comiso. The largest number of passengers will pass through Fontanarossa, where the Sac has calculated 34,185 people arriving and 32,035 departing. Of these, domestic passengers will be 59,920 (31,000 arriving and 28,920 departing); while the international ones will be 6,300 (3,200 arriving and 3,100 departing). Impossible to compare with 2020: in full lockdown, last year’s Easter holiday period had registered just 19 domestic flights – against 269 this year – and had not seen any international flights operate.
The comparison with 2019, on the other hand, returns a completely different picture: two years ago, domestic passengers (again in the period between the Wednesday before Easter and the day after Easter Monday) were 133,828.
The decline in Easter 2021 compared to the last pre-pandemic year is therefore 55% for the national sector and 92% for the international one.
This may already be enough to conclude the focus on the second Easter of the Covid era. But in the story of the repercussions that the pandemic has caused in the tourism of our home there is also the final paradox. A paradox that emerges in the forest of decrees, ordinances, regulations and rules. With the “red zone” you can not take trips outside the region, nor crowded family reunions at home, but for a trip you can reach an airport (even outside your region) and get on a plane headed abroad.
A flaw highlighted by Bernabò Bocca, national president of Federalberghi: «The hotels and the entire Italian hospitality system have been at a standstill for months, due to the ban on moving from one region to another. We do not understand how it is possible to authorize cross-border travel and instead prevent those in Italy ».