5. The market
The Market
Despite the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, both domestic and foreign tourism in Italy and Tuscany have seen a revival, with a particular focus on camping tourism. The information in this chapter comes from the Italian Statistical Office (ISTAT)
Impact of Covid
COVID-19 has had an undeniable impact on tourism across Italy. In 2019, before the outbreak of the pandemic, the number of foreign and domestic tourists reached a peak, with 65 million and 66.4 million tourists respectively. In 2020, the year COVID-19 struck globally, these figures plummeted to 16.5 million for foreign tourists and 39.2 million for domestic tourists.
Although tourism slowly began to recover in 2021 and 2022, numbers have not yet reached pre-pandemic levels. In 2021, 26.9 million foreign tourists and 51.8 million domestic tourists visited Italy. In 2022, these numbers rose further to 55.1 million and 63.4 million respectively, closer to pre-pandemic levels but still lower than the peak numbers of 2019. This suggests that tourism in Italy is still recovering from the impact of the pandemic. (ISTAT, 2023)
Foreign tourists
The origin of foreign tourists in Italy in 2022 is very diverse, with visitors from all over Europe and beyond. Most foreign visitors came from nearby European countries. Of the latter, Germany takes the lead with almost 13 million tourists and France and Switzerland follow with 4.6 and 3.3 million tourists respectively. This concerns all types of tourists who travel to Italy, including weekend tourists who go to Rome, for example. The Netherlands accounted for more than 2.3 million holidaymakers in 2022. (ISTAT, 2023)
Tourism in Tuscany
Tuscany had more than 13 million tourists in 2022. More than half of these came from abroad. Germany once again takes the lead in terms of numbers of tourists here with almost 1 million German tourists in Tuscany in 2022. Among European countries, France (0.5 million), the United Kingdom (0.4 million) and the Netherlands follow with almost 370,000 tourists. The latter is recognizable because Tuscany is generally known as a popular holiday for Dutch people. (ISTAT, 2023)
Kamperen in Italië & Toscane
Compared to Northern Europeans, Italians have a different approach to holidays. Explorations and conversations with local campsite owners and tourism experts have shown that Italians, although not traditionally considered “campers”, still enjoy spending time at “campsites” – but in their own way.
Italians often prefer shorter, but more luxurious holidays, where comfort and convenience come first. The popular choice is a Villaggio Turistico, or 'tourist village'. These are often located near the sea or near the lakes in Northern Italy. These villages look more like resorts (with their chalets and bungalows) than traditional campsites as we know them in Northern Europe or France. In this context, the camping figures for Italy and Tuscany below are somewhat distorted. It is difficult to find how many campsites and camping guests there are as we know them, but there are not very many.
In 2022, Italy registered 11 million tourists at campsites and holiday villages with 67.3 million overnight stays. Foreign tourists had a share of 5.9 million, and domestic tourists approximately 5.1 million. In the Tuscany region there were 1.7 million arrivals and 10.4 million overnight stays in 2022. So a large portion of the whole. While these figures are substantial, it is important to note that they include both traditional camping and staying in 'tourist villages'. It is difficult to give precise figures for the 'real campers' as we know them in Northern Europe, as there is a clear cultural divide in the interpretation of 'camping'. Nevertheless, the love of the outdoors and adventure holidays is shared by both Italians and Northern Europeans, although in different ways. (ISTAT, 2023) (Italia in Dati, 2023)
Toerisme aan de Etruskische kust
Hoewel specifieke gegevens voor de Etruskische Kust beperkt zijn, onderstrepen deze nationale en regionale trends de aantrekkingskracht van Toscane en de Etruskische Kust als toeristische bestemmingen. De regio staat bekend om haar rijke geschiedenis, culturele erfgoed en natuurlijke schoonheid, wat bijdraagt aan de voortdurende groei van het toerisme.
Camping INSIEME profiteert van deze strategische ligging binnen een dynamische regio, wat niet alleen de levensvatbaarheid van onze plannen versterkt, maar ook een solide basis biedt voor een stabiele en groeiende toeristische sector in de toekomst.
