Tourism: Holidays, inflation and luxury
Holidays at all costs (or almost)
Giving up holidays and travel? Unthinkable. But the costs do not always add up in the current climate and so travellers are implementing strategies to adapt, such as shorter budget-friendly trips.
Travelling in the post-covid era has become imperative for Italians. In summer 2022, the Ipsos Future4Tourism monitoring recorded the highest level of holiday propensity since its inception in 2017: 75% of Italians aged between 16 and 75 declared their intention to take a trip between July and September 2022.
Inflation was already an overt concern: in July, 80% of Italians were already apprehensive about rising prices, a share that remained stable until the Christmas period. Holidays, fuel and transport costs had already increased; however, around 7 in 10 Italians who were planning their summer holiday were inclined to change their plans.
The Covid period had given a boost to holidays in the mountains, a phenomenon that began to affect all times of the year. The experimentation with new types of holidays, as opposed to more established habits, has changed the choices of today’s travellers.
2022 opened with another major concern for the tourism sector: the Russian-Ukrainian conflict. Despite the conflict, travel plans were not affected, to the extent that even European travel destinations, which had declined significantly during the pandemic, began to recover their appeal.
In the months to come, the cost theme will become increasingly central. Our research finds no decrease in the desire for holidays and travel in 2023. However, widespread price increases, with respect to all product and service categories, will reduce the economic availability of Italians.
Until now, individuals have tried to maintain consumption levels with strategies to curb spending, such as searching for offers and promotions both on and offline, switching purchasing channels and paying attention to waste.
Ahead of taking a holiday, consumers attempt to put budget-conscious behaviours in place, such as avoiding any unnecessary spending in advance, not going away during the most expensive periods (for those who have the choice) and reducing the duration of the trip. Under less scrutiny and risk of change appear to be destination and distance, type of accommodation and excursions in the area.
The challenge will be for operators in the sector: they will have to devise modes of their offer that meet the need to contain travellers' spending, while they themselves seek to manage the inflationary dynamics.
Katia Cazzaniga
Luxury and premium hospitality
The fascination Italy holds for the high-spending tourist has survived the pandemic.
Once upon a time there was a yacht carrying a group of tanned billionaires sipping champagne, against a backdrop of colourful cottages dotting the coastline. This is the faithful portrayal of the dream luxury holiday in Italy.
Can we still call it realistic in 2023? The Bel Paese, as confirmed by the Ipsos Be-Italy study, remains an irresistible magnet of attraction for tourists, drawn to its quality of life and positive values such as optimism, creativity and inventiveness.
Identifying and understanding the luxury tourist, who today loves to spend his free time in Italy, represents an important strategic step to guaranteeing the hospitality sector remains at pre-pandemic levels. Thanks to our research, we know that it is mainly men, aged between 30 and 49 years old, with a high socio-economic status, and who travel more frequently than average - at least five times in the last five years.
The main forces of attraction to Italy for the high spending visitor, remain, irrespective of origin, the excellent food and wine, places of art, the museum heritage, and the fashion sector. However, it is interesting to note how interest appeal in visiting Italy is high, not only for topics such as fashion (universally known as a prerogative of our culture) but also for other aspects such as classical and contemporary music.
An affluent tourist therefore does not wish not just stay and be pampered, but increasingly wants to experience the culture and way of life of Italians – who are recognising them for positive qualities such as good humour, creativity, a sense of beauty, and a generous openness towards others.
Silvia Andreani
Table of content
- An introduction to Flair Italy 2023: Catenaccio
- ESG investment: From 'ideals' to concreteness
- Food: Recipes for the future
- Fashion: Opportunities and challenges in 2023
- Green mobility: Cities as a laboratory for tomorrow’s mobility
- Tourism: Holidays, inflation and luxury
- Generations - Beauty boom: stereotypes, myths and reality
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