Sardinia is full of tourists and is preparing for seasonal adjustment. Arrivals on the island, since the beginning of the year, have reached 7 million: better than the pre-pandemic era. “Expectations – explains Christian Solinas, president of the Region – were not betrayed even in October and Sardinia continued to record record numbers, consolidating a truly positive season for the sector, proving that the goal of a concrete extension of the tourist season can be reached. The Region is strongly committed to consolidating the tourist offer that goes beyond the summer months, and to resolve the issue of territorial continuity, so as to guarantee the right to mobility of Sardinians and a regular trend in the flow of tourists to the island ».
In other words, the aim is to overcome the equation “tourism only in the summer season” up to a 12-month-long season a year thanks to other forms of tourism such as, for example, Mice (Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and Exhibitions ), slow tourism and food and wine. “We have what it takes to aim for a definitive seasonal adjustment and go beyond the consolidated seaside tourism, for a concrete affirmation of Sardinia in the national and international market” underlines Gianni Chessa, Tourism Councilor of Sardinia.
Ports and airports recorded record arrivals compared to 2019. According to data provided by the Port System Authority of the Sardinian Sea, 115,587 arrivals were recorded in Sardinian ports in October (Olbia 67,783; Porto Torres 31,154; Golfo Aranci 10,059; Cagliari 6,591), up compared to 2021 (+ 5.4%), but also to 2019 (+ 26.12%). A total of over 2 million passengers arrived from 1 June to 31 October. In October, 372,326 passengers arrived at the three island airports (Cagliari 200,486; Olbia 102,298; Alghero 69,542), including scheduled and non-scheduled flights, with an increase of 40% compared to 2021 and 10% compared to 2019. almost 3 million arrivals, while from the beginning of the year about 4.2 million.
The seasonal adjustment finds in its path the crux of the increases brought by expensive energy and inflation. «The issue of energy price increases – says Graziano Debellini, president of Th Resorts, present with two structures on the island – is on the table. We hope that costs will go down and not go up again. Meanwhile, like Th, we had to increase our rates by 10%. And this does not entirely cover the energy increases but it is only a way, we hope, to be able to reduce the negative impact of this situation ».
Like so many operators in the sector, Debellini complains about the inattention to the hospitality industry. “In recent days, the GDP data has certified that in the third quarter our economy was driven by tourism. The data has been published and commented on by everyone but this has not led to any particular attention for the sector – recalls the president of Th Resorts who vented this way -. We are always the Cinderella, only spot interventions and never any organic action. The opposite of what happens in our competing countries where tourism is helped in all ways. Between what tourism represents for Italy, that is 14% of GDP and 17% of employment and what are the interventions for the sector, there is an incredible gap that is not present in any of our competing countries ” .