There were 35 million departures for the year-end holidays that the compatriots had planned a month ago: 10 million for the Immaculate Conception, 12 million for Christmas and 13 million for the New Year. Today, fifteen days after the long weekend of December 8 and 30 after Christmas, 11 million of these bookings are still missing. Above all, there are already several cancellations on bookings already made: to date, there are already 2.5 million. The data emerges from the survey on the propensity of Italians to travel, conducted between 15 and 19 November by Confturismo-Confcommercio in collaboration with Swg.
«Uncertainty prevails, not fear – says the president of Confturismo-Confcommercio, Luca Patanè – for this we need clear and immediate information from the competent authorities on any rules to be adopted to face the upcoming holidays safely. Especially for the vaccinated people, the most inclined and ready to leave ». This year the winter season was supposed to definitively archive the tourism crisis, and instead the increase in Covid infections makes expectations still very uncertain. According to SWG experts, to the missing bookings and cancellations we must add another 8.5 million cases in which the interviewees declare that they have changed their holiday destination, choosing a closer one, or have reduced the days of vacation, which were already in average well below the corresponding figure in 2019.
A hard core of 35.5% resists – more than 12 million – made up of those who, in any case, do not change their minds for any of the planned vacation periods, and declare that they will leave anyway. However, in half of the cases, these are holidays with family members or friends, whose impact of spending on real tourist services is in any case reduced compared to the average.