Last year, Italy “took bronze” in the competition for the title of the most beloved and most often chosen by tourists destination countries. In addition to beautiful Italy, the top three most popular countries that make up the EU are sunny and hot Spain, as well as romantic France, respectively.
According to the authors of a study of the market for tourism services, in 2013 many Italians chose to spend their holidays in their homeland, and residents of Greece, Croatia and Bulgaria followed their example. But the population of Belgium and Luxembourg, on the contrary, seeks to leave their countries and go to warmer places.
A survey conducted by Confturismo and Confcommercio in collaboration with the University of Venice Ca Foscari (Università Ca 'Foscari Venezia) showed that less than half of all funds spent on tourists in the EU remain in Italy, while the rest of the money enriches the budget of other countries . According to experts, of the 5.7 billion euros received from the sale of tourism services to foreigners, only 2.7 billion euros (equivalent to 47.1 percent) go to the treasury of Italy, and the remaining 3 billion (52.9 percent) go to the treasury other countries. According to the results of the study, almost 40 percent of the total tour package amount is the cost of services of companies engaged in international transportation. Moreover, 12.9 percent of the total amount is the mark-up for the services of foreign tour operators.
Through simple combinations (40 + 12.9), the amount of funds that goes abroad is obtained. On average, in 2013, a package of services from an Italian tour operator cost foreigners about 1,500 euros.
According to researchers, among all regions of sunny Italy, Toscana, Veneto, Campania, Sicily and Sicilia and Calabria are the most popular among tourists.
Analysts suggest that if Italy has enough strength, capabilities and resources to restore the lost trust of foreigners, in 2016 tourism will be at least 11 percent of total GDP, and will also become a source of new jobs (about 900 thousand). So far, the most promising for development are the southern regions of the country.
In general, last year the flow of tourists to the EU countries set a record: 2.6 billion foreigners spent nights here, which is 1.6 percent more than in 2012.
Despite the fact that Italy still ranks third in the list of the most popular European countries among travelers, it was here that analysts noted the most significant decline: in 2013, 4.6 percent fewer tourists visited the country and the sun than before.
At the same time, people gushed into Greece: 11.7 percent more foreigners chose it than in the previous year.
In the past year, countries such as Malta (+ 7.8%), Latvia (+ 7.3%), Great Britain (+ 6.5%), Bulgaria (+ 6.2%), Slovakia (+ 5, 5%) and Hungary (+ 5.0%), while tourists forgot about Italy, Cyprus (- 3.7%), the Czech Republic (- 1.2%), Finland (- 0.7%) and Belgium (- 0.5%).
Taking into account both residents of Europe (about 45 percent) and representatives of other countries, Malta and Cyprus (96% and 93% respectively), Croatia (92%), and Greece took the lead in the largest amount of time spent on their territory. (79%), Austria (71%) and Latvia (70%). If we take into account the time spent in the country exclusively by foreign representatives, here the first place is deservedly occupied by the United Kingdom (+ 16.7%), Greece (+ 13.2%) and Latvia (9.4%).
