It will be a record summer. Tourist Tsunami goes to Italy

About 66 million tourists, including almost 36 million from abroad, are expected this summer in Italy. It promises to be another record season, including an even greater influx of Americans after the election of Pope Leon XIV.

According to the Demoscopic Research Institute, the number of accommodation reserved from June to September in hotels, guesthouses and holiday resorts will exceed 267 million, and there will be more tourists about 3.5 percent than last summer. There were 63.6 million of them at the time. This year it will come by over 2 million more.

This in turn means that especially in historical cities you can expect even more severe effects of the so -called excessive tourism. Almost one -fifth of all tourists come to five Italian cities – Florence, Venice, Naples and Milan.

The financial revenues of industries related to the provision of tourist services are forecasted at EUR 39 billion.

The report analysis recorded an increase in the number of Italian tourists who want to spend their holidays in the country. Foreigners will be almost 2 percent more than last summer.

Representatives of the tourist sector also provide for an increase in the number of newcomers from the USA, especially to Rome, in connection with the choice of the first pope from this country – Leon XIV. Their first major wave will come to the Sunday inauguration of the Pontificate of Leon XIV.

In an eternal city, where traditional tourism is connected with pilgrimage, several hundred thousand people are expected at the turn of July and August at the Youth Jubilee with the participation of a new pope as part of the Holy Year.

From Rome Sylwia Wysocka (PAP)

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