Observatory

Outdoor Tourism Observatory Report

The 2023 summer season of open-air tourism is set to be record-breaking, with a predicted 56.6 million visitors in the months of June, July, August and September, which is an increase of 2% compared to 2022 (55.5 million) and 1% compared to 2019 (55.9 million). This year is an ideal chance to consolidate and build on the tourist flows recorded in summer 2022, but will also represent one of the best in the last 10 years, second only to 2017 (57.9 million).The foreign market looks particularly promising: it is estimated that it will make up 51% of the market, becoming a driving force and demonstrating international visitors' desire to travel and to cross borders towards the Mediterranean, particularly Italy. The Italian market, which represents the remaining 49%, is stable and in line with 2021 and 2022; although travellers have a propensity for holidays outside their home country, economic factors such as increased expenses, inflation and increased transport costs could encourage Italians to stay within their national borders. The above is the main data that emerged from the Outdoor Tourism Observatory from Human Company, a leading Italian hospitality company that has been active in open-air tourism for over forty years, in collaboration with THRENDS, a company specialising in analysis and strategies in the tourism & hospitality sector.

For the 2023 edition, the Observatory expanded its scope to encompass the hospitality macrocategory of outdoor tourism, which is made up of campsites and tourist villages – which were included in the 2022 edition – as well as agritourism destinations and lodges. The Observatory's goal is to obtain a complete picture of the sector, establishing itself as a point of reference for outdoor tourism and making a concrete and strategic contribution. To ensure accurate results, the Observatory team undertook the complex work of data collection, which involved various bodies including ISTAT, Eurostat and the competent offices for every Italian region, which was followed by a phase of interpretation and analysis in order to evaluate the accuracy and comparability of the different sources; it was therefore possible to collect data with different details to establish to an overall vision. Lastly, a new model was developed to estimate attendance in 2023, reworking the models used in previous years.

To prepare the forecasts for summer 2023, the Observatory team had to rebuild the 2022 data for each region of Italy: thanks to the support from the Regional Statistics Offices, the report includes a preview of the 2022 results (defined as "provisional") for the outdoor sector, which are not yet available from ISTAT. The numbers show that 2022 saw a return to pre-2020 levels, with outdoor sector visitors totalling 66.1 million over the course of the year, which is just 1.1% lower than 2019. Furthermore, Italy was the second European market for guests in 2022, behind only France. However, these numbers do not reflect a complete recovery, as the national segment is still in line with 2021 levels (down 9% from 2019), while the foreign segment was up 40% from 2021 and 3% from 2019. This comeback highlights the general trust in open-air holidays, especially among foreign tourists. In terms of the distribution of outdoor demand, 59% of the Italian market is absorbed by 5 regions – in order, Tuscany, Veneto, Emilia Romagna, Marche and Puglia – while 69% of the foreign market is absorbed by Veneto, Tuscany, Lombardy, South Tyrol and Piedmont.