The tourism sector has started to flourish again, showing signs of forward momentum as early as this spring. This was also thanks to the various long weekends between the months of April and May.

According to Confesercenti-Assoviaggi, during the Easter week and the spring months, more than 1.2 million holiday packages were sold at Italian travel agencies, registering an 11% increase over the previous year. These include the strong trend of Italians considering foreign travel, which has seen a 23 percent increase since 2022.

While renewed enthusiasm in the Peninsula for cross-border travel is evident, these trips remain mostly short-haul, with Spain as the primary destination, followed by France, Portugal, Morocco, the United Kingdom and Greece. European capitals were the destinations sought by 57.9 percent of agencies surveyed during the research.

Although not to such a large extent, there was also no shortage of travel to "middle distance" countries, such as Egypt and Israel, or even Iceland, Finland and Norway. For tourists interested in more faraway destinations, trips mainly involved the Caribbean, the United States, Japan and Thailand.

For those who, on the contrary, chose to stay in Italy, Tuscany and Lazio lead the ranking, followed by Campania and Sicily, Veneto and Puglia. The strong interest in cultural tourism in spring is reflected in the consistent interest of tourists in cities of art, such as Rome, Florence, Naples, Venice, Turin and Matera.

In addition, travel by foreign travelers to the Peninsula has increased and confirms Italy as among the favorite European destinations for the Easter holidays. According to the data processed by the Bit Observatory, there were 141,000 bookings for international flights to Italy in the period from April 9 to 15, 2023, showing an increase of 29% compared to the same period in 2022 (from April 17 to 23). Other cities preferred by foreigners besides Rome and Milan include Venice, Naples, Florence and Bologna.

Italy therefore saw strong tourist activity this spring, which marked an important step forward for the tourism sector and paved the way for a promising summer of travel and experiences. Italy is second only to Spain, which received around 186,000 airline bookings from abroad, only 45,000 more than Italy.