tourism-italia.com

According to Confturismo Confcommercio, the Italian tourism organisation, less Italians are being tourists in their home country and are saving their pennies in the turbulent economic climate. However, it’s not all doom and gloom. The good news is that many foreign tourists are still flocking to Italy, it is just the Italians who are tightening their spending. Statistics show that last year there was an increase of 1.5% in the number of rooms rented by foreign tourists compared to 2006, whereas the number of rooms rented by Italians decreased by 1.5 million from 140.4 million to 138.9 million. Although many peope think that in a recession we should be tightening our spending, if we don’t support our local tourist attractions and businesses, when we come out the other side of it we won’t have very many places left to spend our money. Just consider that the next time you consider whether or not to have a holiday at home.

According to the United States Tour Operators Association, for the fifth year in a row Italy has come top in a poll of the most popular international destinations for vacation packages and tours for Americans booking through USTOA member organisations. Coming a very distant second was England. Now I wonder what could draw all of those Americans here? The food? The architecture? The scenery? The history? Or maybe just the overall unique package…..