“On the eve of a new winter season, the results of which will be seen in the first months of 2024, the mountains in Lombardy in 2023 marked an overtaking of 7% compared to 2019, the golden year of Italian tourism”. He talks about it Barbara MazzaliCouncilor for Tourism, Territorial Marketing and Fashion of the Lombardy Region, illustrating the numbers of the Regional Tourism Observatory.
AND GIVE – “Very positive data emerge from the analysis of the flows of the Lombardy mountains – explains the councilor -. In fact, the trend sees a very significant increase in arrivals and presences, above all thanks to the driving force of Italian tourists, who have always been the main influx basin of the Lombardy mountains”. Going to the numbers, Mazzali explains: “A total of 4.2 million tourists stayed in the Lombardy mountains this year, with an increase of 7% compared to 2019, equal to 268,292 more presences. Positive numbers also on the front “of total arrivals (1.1 million), for which there was an increase of 5.4%, corresponding to 56,344 more visitors in 2023 compared to 4 years ago”. The growing desire for the Lombardy mountains also translates into web searches: “The sentiment recorded in the period January – September 2023 is very positive: 92.3% and is higher than the regional average (85.5%)”, observes Mazzali again.
THE KEY ROLE OF SKI LIFTS – Looking at the next objectives regarding the ski season, the councilor adds: “Central are the ski lifts, which must be safe, modern and fast. An example of this is the new six-seater chairlift, ‘Valena’, soon to debut in the Pontedilegno-Tonale (BS) ski area. Capable of transporting three thousand people per hour in just over 2 minutes, it will avoid queues, multiplying the pleasure of skiing”. Important investments have also been made by the Lombardy Region in the Bergamo mountains, where the new ski lifts in Val di Scalve were inaugurated yesterday. “Here, thanks to the synergy between Finlombarda, Banca Sella and the Istituto per il Credito Sportivo for an amount of 6 million euros, we are also working on a new ten-seater gondola lift”, recalls Mazzali, who closes with words of confidence: “Lombardy has a lot of potential still to be exploited to increase its tourist competitiveness, both in winter and summer, compared to other regions of the Alpine arc”.