Covid has brought the entire tourism sector to its knees. Stop moving, closures and restrictions have become fertile ground for the mafias that have slipped into the liquidity crisis of hundreds of companies. To the point that according to a research carried out by Demoskopika, the turnover of organized crime deriving from the infiltration of the legal economy of the tourism sector exceeds 2.2 billion euros, of which almost 40% is concentrated in the South. What’s more: it is estimated that almost 4,500 companies are at the greatest risk of money laundering associated with the liquidity crisis caused by the pandemic.
“Tourism on its knees for Covid is tempting to criminal associations,” says the president of Demoskopika, Raffaele Rio. «The investigation into mafia infiltration in tourism is worrying. It is a phenomenon that heavily damages the sector made up of serious entrepreneurs, damaged by the pandemic. The government is developing transparent financing formulas capable of supporting operators affected by the economic impact of the virus, in order to make them impermeable from mafia contamination, ”said the Minister of Tourism, Massimo Garavaglia.
However, the situation is not the same throughout Italy. Compared with six regions (Lombardy, Lazio, Campania, Puglia, Calabria, Sicily) with a high risk of criminal infiltration, there are four that seem much more impermeable and therefore at “low” risk: Marche, Veneto, Friuli Venezia Giulia and Trentino Alto Adige.
The organization with the most infiltrations is the ‘Ndrangheta with a turnover of 810 million, equal to 37% of total revenues. Followed by the Camorra with 730 million (33%), the Mafia with 440 (20%) and organized crime from Puglia and Basilicata with 220 (10%). Observing the territorial level, it also emerges that 38% of criminal income, equal to 825 million, would be concentrated in the realities of the South. Followed by the Center with 515 million (23%), the North West with 490 million (22%) and the North East with 370 million (17%).