Italian tourism gives positive signals. According to the survey commissioned by Enit on receptive trends, the 'summer is promising despite international tensions. Forecasts of customer attendance in facilities for 2022 are quite in line with pre-pandemic levels. Bookings to Italy continue in comparison to last year even compared to those recorded to a sample of competitor countries.

"The debut of a summer that brings us back to pre-pandemic scents and to a tourism future with trends that place sustainability and the value of travel at the center by declining elements of personalization of 'offer,'" declares Roberta Garibaldi, Enit CEO. It estimates +324 percent (over 2021) in June and +222 percent (also over 2021) in July.

European air traffic grew steadily from mid-March to early May. Airline bookings also show increasing demand for intra-European travel and flights from the U.S. to Europe. The easing of travel restrictions is contributing to the normalization of travel (36 countries have lifted all travel restrictions related to COVID 19 as of May 13, 2022). The war in Ukraine had minimal impact on hotel and non-hotel bookings, which, in 90 percent of cases, were confirmed for both periods with predilection of bookings through telephone and online contact.

These were mainly couples and families followed by leisure tourists. The former preferred non-hotel facilities while tourists mainly chose hotels. Less than half (about 40 percent) of the facilities surveyed say that the war in Ukraine is having an effect on their business. 

According to the operators interviewed, the greatest impact of international tensions is and will be reflected in 'increased energy and gas costs that affect the operation of the facility.