PALERMO (ITALPRESS) – “The data, with respect to the summer season, are definitely positive, still undefined but we can say that, with respect to the first half of 2024, making a comparison with 2023, certainly there has been a growth trend around +3.5 percent if we do not consider short rentals. With respect to short rentals, in fact, we even had a 50% increase over last year’s figure. We had a total of presences that exceeded 8 million.” Thus the Sicilian Regional Councilor for Tourism, Sports and Entertainment, Elvira Amata, in an interview with Italpress. “Foreigners continue to drive our summer season and not only,” she continued, “they are constantly increasing and compared to 2023 we had a 45 percent growing presence. On the other hand, if we go to evaluate the data for July and August, which are not final, they are certainly lower: we had a decrease of 3.4 percent in July and 4.3 percent in August but, considering the number of accommodations and the trend that there has been – he continues -, we will almost certainly come not only to break even but certainly to bring back the ‘minus’ in ‘plus.'”
“Another fact that we have evaluated and that can be linked to the drop in July and August,” he stresses, “is that we have an important presence of foreign tourists in periods that are not high season. I am referring to January-March where there is a very important growth compared to 2023 and 2022, this suggests that foreigners prefer to visit Sicily in quieter periods, probably because they are more directed to an experiential tourism, to a visit of our villages, to an immersion in the landscape, history, tradition and Sicilian culture. To get an overall idea we have to wait until the end of the year to see how the season went in absolute terms. We can say we are satisfied because the first objective of the assessorate that we established with the president of the Region, Renato Schifani, was to really start the deseasonalization – he points out – I think that the actions we have put in place, and the numbers say it, are taking us in this direction, and we already have concrete results.”
The goal of the Department is “a unified planning, every action that I put in place I do it thinking about deseasonalization, the new post-pandemic way of traveling; obviously in Sicily we have different segments that we can highlight, the tourist offer that Sicily can give is unique in the world and is dictated by the climatic conditions, the artistic and cultural heritage that we have, to the food and wine, our landscapes. Clearly, if we think about deseasonalization, the events that are organized are also important, so I am well careful to do it out of season. One example is the historical trains,” he says, “an initiative that has been going on for several years and is having incredible success, in 2023 we had to integrate services in the process precisely because the demand was beyond our imagination. In fielding this initiative, I wanted to associate the stops of these trains not only by choosing the location, but also if there were events organized on those dates. So we associate experiential tourism, visits and important sites and at the same time food, a complete offer.”
Finally, the councilor also talks about the Coni Trophy, which sees the Sicilian Region among the big sponsors of the event with a funding of 1.2 million euros: “This is a very important event,” he explains, “the funding was provided by the Department of Tourism, it will be inaugurated tomorrow in Catania in the presence of the President of the Republic, and will end in Palermo. So many sports disciplines in the field and especially so many young people, the key thing is to be able to involve, especially when we talk about sports, young people that educates and leads to face the challenges of life in the right way,” he concludes.
– Photo gtr/Italpress –
(ITALPRESS).
