Between January and May this year, over 2 million tourists came to Piedmont for 5 million overnight stays. In the last two months alone, between April and May, there were over 1,080,000 arrivals and 2,760,000 overnight stays, a year-on-year increase of 14 and 11 percent, respectively. If only arrivals from abroad are taken into account, the increase is 37 percent.
These are the figures published by the Region of Piedmont and VisitPiemonte for the first five months of 2023.
“These are figures that confirm the excellent growth in tourism performance in Piedmont,” comments Alberto Cirio, President of the Piedmont Region, after growth in 2022, when 5.5 million arrivals and almost 15 million attendances were reached, an increase of 3.3 percent corresponds compared to 2019 and 56 percent compared to 2021. While Italy as a whole achieved results in 2022, with a balance of visitors of -8 percent, still below pre-Covid levels, Piedmont has exceeded these figures and keeps growing.”
The positive results come on the eve of the return of advertising for Piedmont on the Rai, Mediaset and La7 networks.
“Piedmont is once again a protagonist on TV channels this year. In fact, the commercials will be broadcast from Sunday on the Mediaset networks during the weather services, explains the Councilor for Tourism Vittoria Poggio. On Rai, on the other hand, we will be present with various services on Camper and on the Linea Verde Estate. This television program will allow us to attract new visitors or make those who already know discover new corners of our territory thanks to the punctual content of the programs and spread the message widely thanks to the commercials. Last year, as evidenced by the data, we benefited greatly from the number of viewers thanks to television communication, so we are confident that we are on the right track.”
Confirming the spring results, the trends for the next summer months are also positive: for the first weekend in July, for example, on the online platforms (online travel agency, Ota), which offer around 40 percent of the available rooms in Piedmont, only one in four rooms is bookable, while around 40 percent of the rooms that are still bookable are in Turin, where the online offer accounts for 63 percent of the total rooms.
“Following the excellent tourist results of the spring months, we are expecting another season of great satisfaction thanks to the intensive promotional activities abroad at trade fairs, workshops and conferences, as well as the promotional investments planned for the 2023 summer campaign on the key themes of taste.” , Unesco, Art and Culture, Nature – explains Beppe Carlevaris, CEO of VisitPiemonte – commercials and television programs in collaboration with the main Italian channels: “Linea Verde Sentieri” and “Camper” by Rai; weather forecast postcards and branded videos on Mediaset networks; Spot campaigns on La7 and special programs with “L’Italia Che Miace…in viaggio con Raspelli” on Alma TV, Canale Europa, TV Plus, Amazon Fire TV and Roku. Montecarlo, Radio Deejay and Radio Capital. And also publications in La Stampa, Repubblica, Il Friday and D di Repubblica, National Geographic Travel, Il Gusto, Corriere della Sera, Bell’Italia and others. For the international markets we have digital, programmatic and digital campaigns explores social media engagement in DACH (German-speaking), France, UK, Scandinavian countries and Spain, and the creation of ad-hoc content on the touristic specificities of the Piedmont Territories.
Coming back to the spring data and the strong growth in outbound tourism after two years of the pandemic, the figures show that Germany is the top foreign-origin market, followed by Switzerland, France, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands, all of which saw their arrivals and visitor numbers soar compared to the same period in 2022 by more than 20 percent. The United States of America is in sixth place with an increase of about 50 percent.
Based on the elaboration of the Tourism Observatory of the Piedmont Region, it is highlighted that all tourism products are growing:
• The Lake District recorded a 19 percent increase in arrivals and 28 percent in overnight stays in spring 2023 compared to the same period last year;
• The mountains recorded a positive evolution in arrivals and an increase in overnight stays: +5 percent in arrivals and +8 percent in overnight stays compared to the same period in 2022;
• The performance of the Piedmont hills was also positive, where there was a 9 percent increase in arrivals and an 11 percent increase in overnight stays compared to the same period last year;
• Torino and the First Belt saw a 17 percent increase in arrivals and a slight decrease in overnight stays.
Again based on the data processed by the Observatory of Tourism of the Piedmont Region, it should be noted that the monitoring of online reviews in the period April-May 2023 confirms the increase in the number of visitors to Piedmont: the number of reviews directly related to the arrival of tourists stands, in these two months it has increased by 10 percent compared to the same period of 2022. In particular, those affecting the sea area grew by 6.7 percent, those for the mountains by 8 percent, and those for the mountains by 10.2 percent for the hill area and 11.8 percent for Turin and the first belt. In the vast majority of cases, these are positive reviews. Sentiment for the overall “Piedmont product” – accommodation, food and attractions – scores 87.2 out of 100, higher than Italy (86.7/100). In the accommodation sector, Piedmont scores 85.1 points out of 100 compared to Italy’s 84.5.