MILAN (ITALPRESS) – The year 2024 “closes in a substantially positive way, but it should be framed in a somewhat broader historical arc: we need to look at what happened in 2023,” which “was a year of ‘rebound’ after the very serious pandemic crisis that halted the mobility and profitability of the entire sector” of travel agencies. This was said by Domenico Pellegrino, president of Aidit Confindustria and Ceo of the Bluvacanze group, interviewed by Claudio Brachino for the TV magazine Italpress Economy. “Finally, 2023 had been the first full year that had given more than satisfactory results to the sector, but it also brought to light some problems: the first is the inflationary phenomenon, which led to an increase in prices especially of the flown but also of the hospitality that have greatly affected the average value of the tourist package, about 16 percent more. This in 2024 has somewhat reckoned with the spending capacity of consumers: especially the mass market has seen its purchasing power compressed more, but despite this we still have a positive year end, on average around +6/8%.” Regarding expectations for 2025, “the so-called advance booking, that is, the ability to book in advance in time, from the classic 80-90 days has increased to 140-150 days. This means that those who have the ability to plan-because they have time availability, but also economic availability to be able to decide on their vacations-are doing so well in advance: this is a fundamental benefit for the supply chain, because it allows logic of occupancy management and pricing planning. It is clear that there is a whole segment of the population, on the other hand, that does not have this possibility and is therefore getting squeezed on last minute.” This Christmas, “long haul played the trump card,” Pellegrino explains. There was “very good sales preparation in the September-October period, with a slowdown in November, and then it started again just with the last minute dynamics.”From the pandemic to today, explains the president of Aidit Confindustria, “about 25 percent of the available points of sale have been lost in Italy: certainly the blocking of activities for a long period has played an important role, with a migration of some professionalism to other sectors, but the real problem is that we do not have a real generational turnover and we risk facing” the future “with a cultural and anagraphic approach that is not suited to new technologies. The ability to attract talent for this specific part of the sector is very poor for two reasons: the first is related precisely to the non-high profitability of companies. On the other hand, there is a cultural problem about the role of travel agencies. “For Pellegrino, “a double job of training and structural interventions must be done to make these jobs attractive.” The profession has transformed “enormously, often when talking to those outside this sector one imagines that it is a professionalism now outdated by the advent of the internet and artificial intelligence” that have led “to an overcoming of the concept of traditional type of interlocution. In reality, these elements have become the great allies of the travel agent who has maintained the centrality of the role, with a different function but with a quality and added value that is currently recognized, what the Anglo-Saxons call human to human. Technology is not a substitute” but “should be managed and dealt with, not suffered. I find it an extraordinary opportunity that, if well managed will bring even more of that human touch to emerge and prevail. The difference, once again, will be made by people.”
– Italpress Photo –
(ITALPRESS).
