La dolce vita

It’s no secret that Italy is a well-known tourist destination for hopeful travellers. Pulling in more than 65 million travellers in 2019 alone, according to ISTAT, is there any wonder people are so eager to pack their suitcases? Originally a destination for the elite to study the rich history and architecture dating back to the Roman Empire, the country’s popularity has only soared since. Alongside a great number of attractions – its culture and cuisine, for example – it’s clear why tourists keep coming back.

And as tourism has grown, so has the hospitality sector. For Andrea Zana, general manager at hotel Il San Pietro di Positano, he “couldn’t do anything else” after working in Italian hospitality. As someone who has worked for major hotel chains in various environments, Zana started his career by accident and fell in love with the industry in the process. “I landed at Il San Pietro and loved it immediately. It is a family-run hotel but structured like a major-chain hotel, in which owners and managers dialogue with the staff, creating an alchemy immediately noticeable to guests. This has changed the way I work: today it’s my lifestyle,” explains Zana. The hotel in question, Il San Pietro, is a five-star deluxe hotel on the Amalfi coast suspended between the sea and sky – so it is easy to understand his enthusiasm.

As a country renowned as a cultural hotspot, its tourism and hospitality have undeniably been developed over the years. It is one of the largest markets in the country and occupies the fourth position in the world, according to Research and Markets. “The art of hospitality in Italy has very ancient origins, and certainly having the Vatican and many pilgrimage sites developed an early pilgrimage tourism,” says Zana.

“As one of world economic powers, Italy has a highly developed business tourism (like the one connected with fashion), but the strong point remains the leisure tourism since the country has the highest number of Unesco sites in the world and many iconic places.”

Eat, pray, love

The country is considered one of the most attractive destinations for tourists in terms of development, with the top five destinations – Rome, Milan, Venice, Florence, and Bologna – having the highest concentration of hotels in its destination pipeline, according to Horwath HTL Italy Hotels & Chains. In Italy, 60% of the total branded hotels are located in art and business locations, with 30% in coastal destinations. “Art, food and people are the three main factors for tourism in Italy,” says Zana. “But once visitors arrive in our country, they find much more. The quality of facilities, excellent service, nature trails, spa tourism, activities and of course shopping.”

For Maurizio Orlacchio, co-owner and general manager of Borgo Santandrea, he was “born and raised” in hotels and spent 11 years working for the Four Seasons brand, the experience of which he brings with him to Borgo Santandrea. For him, what makes Italy so attractive is the nature of the hotels themselves, as some of the best are independently run or family-owned. “Of course, you know, we are going through the globalisation process,” Orlacchio adds. “It’s changing according to the big demand that there is now, but overall Italy is famous not only for the beauty of the country but also for being fairly welcoming,” he says. “This is due to the fact that most important hotels are family-owned or are independent.”

However, the past few years have not been easy, even for an illustrious country such as Italy. The pandemic saw the hospitality industry set to lose more than €36bn from missing tourists and visitors, according to the WTTC. This has left the road to recovery a fraught one, with hotel occupancy rates falling to 39.7% in 2020. Projections from GlobalData show that the hotel industry is on the path to recovery, with occupancy rates hitting 65.2% in 2022, however, these are not expected to reach 2019 levels until 2024.

In spite of the significant impact of Covid-19 on the hotel industry, it has remained popular with strong potential in terms of growth. The country saw strong recovery in 2021, seeing 58.5% growth in terms of its overall economy due to the contributions from travel and tourism, as the sector met rising demands of holidaymakers as the restrictions began to lift. “After two very difficult years, the outlook is much brighter. Travel & Tourism’s projections provide a massive boost, not only to Italy’s overall economy, but to the creation of new jobs,” said Julia Simpson, WTTC President & CEO in a report.

“Precisely because of this continued expansion, Italian hospitality has refined over and over, becoming more and more focused on the guest,” adds Zana. “For example, on the Amalfi Coast today even in an ‘inexpensive’ B&B, it’s possible to find a high level of service. It is also true that customers are willing to spend more but demand increasingly high quality in return.”

For Zana, Italian hospitality is the key reason for its resiliency in the past few years. “I don’t think the hotel industry has slowed down in recent years,” he adds. “On the contrary, it has been growing steadily, and not even the pandemic has been able to curb this development. Big names of the world’s hotel industry are buzzing about Italy, an ever-expanding market, and many interesting openings are expected in the coming years.”

Everyday challenges

On the topic of challenges, however, Orlacchio feels that the hospitality industry faces challenges on a daily basis. For him, running a hotel incurs challenges from all angles, but the main priority is ensuring that the guest leaves with a smile. So while the pandemic had a big impact on the industry, it was just another challenge they had to endure. It also presented the industry with a wider wave of tourism: “It opened it up to the public – before you had this idea that if you don’t have a room in the hotel, you cannot go to the bar, you cannot go to the restroom. But now it’s very common.” This change, he says, brings about a good opportunity for hotels for recovery and reaching the public.

This change in the past five years of opening up hotels to people who might not be able to afford a room but can “afford to have a special evening” offers a great opportunity and growth potential for hotels comments Orlacchio. “The market is growing right after the pandemic, as people love to travel even more than before.” To match this demand, says Orlacchio, hotels have to find new ways to keep up.

Jack of all trades

Both Zana and Orlacchio are confident that the hospitality sector shows no signs of slowing down, as many guest and investors alike are still drawn to Italy despite the troublesome past few years the industry has endured. The Italian hospitality industry is well-positioned to welcome holidaymakers with the country’s numerous attractions and heritage sites. “Needless to say that Italy is known as the country with the biggest heritage,” Orlacchio proclaims. “There is no specific area where we are famous for. I think that this great mix [of heritage] is what makes it special.”

“When a country has so much to offer, it is difficult to add other attractions,” Zana agrees. “Despite this, there is no shortage of initiatives. For example, a new challenge is the so-called ‘proximity tourism’, a way to enhance even the most remote corners of the country that have so much to offer and are just a stone’s throw from home.”

Certainly, as Zana and Orlacchio make clear, the future promises great things for Italian hospitality as it remains a hotspot for development and holiday destinations. The country is clearly confident in its appeal as a luxury holiday destination. As Zana says, “The hotel industry is one of the most promising in Italy, so it deserves the highest priority.”

The beginnings of recovery

During the first year of the Covid-19 pandemic, the main Italian tourist cities recorded very significant decreases compared with 2019 and well above the national average (-56.1%): Florence with -83.8% was followed by Rome (-81.3%), Milan (-77.5%) and Venice (-74.8%).

After the unfortunate results recorded during 2020, 2021 began with decreases over 2019 values of -75% in Venice, -81% in Rome and -68% in Florence and then fell to -75% for Rome and -61% for the rest from March till June. In July and August, compared with a -9% nationally, Venice and Florence managed to recover significantly registering respectively -21% and -24% compared with the same period in 2019. Subsequently, overnight stays in such cities stabilised around -19% and -22%, thus performing better than Italy (-29%). The recovery of tourist flows in Rome, on the other hand, was much slower, settling in the summer months at -58.7% and then at -44.2% between September and October.

Source: Horwath HTL: ITALY Hotels & Chains Report 2022