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TOURISM

Italy’s cultural hotspots enjoy visitor surge

Last year was the most successful ever for Italy's museums and cultural sites, according to new figures from the Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities and Tourism.

Italy's cultural hotspots enjoy visitor surge
The Uffizi Gallery in Florence, one of the sites which saw record numbers of visitors last year. Photo: Chris Wee/Flickr

Figures showed a boom in visitor numbers for 2014, when almost 29 million people visited the 672 sites run by the Ministry of Cultural Heritage – 2.3 million more than the year before, La Stampa reported.

The figures showed that the number of paying visitors has increased by four million over the last decade.

But what are Italy's most popular sites?

Rome’s Colosseum saw a whopping 6.2 million visitors pass through its ancient arches in 2014, while the ruins of Pompeii were visited by 2.7 million  people.


Photo: Aaron Logan

The third most visited museum was the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, where 1.9 million visitors admired the masterpieces on show in 2014.

Ugo Soragni, the director general of museums for the ministry, attributed the success to various initiatives now offered by many of Italy's cultural sites.

“In the last few years there has been more on offer for visitors and more and more people are visiting our museums,” Sorgani said.

Recent initiatives aimed at boosting visitor numbers include creative laboratories, treasure hunts for children, open evenings at the larger museums, and so-called heritage days (Giornate del Patrimonio), which see special events held at  historic sites across the country on certain days of the year.

Overall, museums earned €111.8 million last year, but the ministry is still looking to attract even more people to its sites with new initiatives set to launch in early 2016 as Italy tries to profit more from its extraordinarily rich cultural heritage.

Government plans to improve profits include an online 'portal', where tourists will be able to buy tickets for all of the sites run by the Ministry online, as well as bars and restaurants with 'made in Italy' produce opening in several museums.

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TRAVEL NEWS

Why are fewer British tourists visiting Spain this year?

Almost 800,000 fewer UK holidaymakers have visited Spain in 2023 when compared to 2019. What’s behind this big drop?

Why are fewer British tourists visiting Spain this year?

Spain welcomed 12.2 million UK tourists between January and July 2023, 6 percent less when compared to the same period in 2019, according to data released on Monday by Spanish tourism association Turespaña.

This represents a decrease of 793,260 British holidaymakers for Spain so far this year.

Conversely, the number of Italian (+8 percent), Irish (+15.3 percent), Portuguese (+24.8 percent), Dutch (+4 percent) and French tourists (+5 percent) visiting España in 2023 are all above the rates in 2019, the last pre-pandemic year. 

German holidaymakers are together with their British counterparts the two main nationalities showing less interest in coming to Spanish shores.

Britons still represent the biggest tourist group that comes to Spain, but it’s undergoing a slump, with another recent study by Caixabank Research suggesting numbers fell particularly in June 2023 (-12.5 percent of the usual rate). 

READ ALSO: Spain fully booked for summer despite most expensive holiday prices ever

So are some Britons falling out of love with Spain? Are there clear reasons why a holiday on the Spanish coast is on fewer British holiday itineraries?

According to Caixabank Research’s report, the main reasons are “the poor macroeconomic performance of the United Kingdom, the sharp rise in rates and the weakness of the pound”.

This is evidenced in the results of a survey by British market research company Savanta, which found that one in six Britons are not going on a summer holiday this year due to the UK’s cost-of-living crisis.

Practically everything, everywhere has become more expensive, and that includes holidays in Spain: hotel stays are up 44 percent, eating out is 13 percent pricier, and flights are 40 percent more on average. 

READ ALSO: How much more expensive is it to holiday in Spain this summer?

Caixabank stressed that another reason for the drop in British holidaymakers heading to Spain is that those who can afford a holiday abroad are choosing “more competitive markets” such as Turkey, Greece and Portugal. 

And there’s no doubt that the insufferably hot summer that Spain is having, with four heatwaves so far, has also dissuaded many holidaymakers from Blighty from overcooking in the Spanish sun. 

With headlines such as “This area of Spain could become too hot for tourists” or “tourists say it’s too hot to see any sights” featuring in the UK press, budding British holidaymakers are all too aware of the suffocating weather conditions Spain and other Mediterranean countries are enduring. 

Other UK outlets have urged travellers to try out the cooler Spanish north rather than the usual piping hot Costa Blanca and Costa del Sol destinations.

Another UK poll by InsureandGo found that 71 percent of the 2,000+ British respondents thought that parts of Europe such as Spain, Greece and Turkey will be too hot to visit over summer by 2027.

There’s further concern that the introduction in 2024 of the new (and delayed) ETIAS visa for non-EU visitors, which of course now also applies to UK nationals, could further compel British tourists to choose countries to holiday in rather than Spain.

READ MORE: Will British tourists need to pay for a visa waiver to enter Spain?

However, a drop in the number of British holidaymakers may not be all that bad for Spain, even though they did spend over €17 billion on their Spanish vacations in 2022. 

Towns, cities and islands across the country have been grappling with the problem of overtourism and the consequences it has on everything from quality of life for locals to rent prices. 

READ ALSO: ‘Beach closed’ – Fake signs put up in Spain’s Mallorca to dissuade tourists

The overcrowded nature of Spain’s beaches and most beautiful holiday hotspots appears to be one of the reasons why Germans are visiting Spain in far fewer numbers. A recent report in the country’s most read magazine Stern asked “if the dream is over” in their beloved Mallorca.

Spanish authorities are also seeking to overhaul the cheaper holiday package-driven model that dominates many resorts, which includes moving away from the boozy antics of young British and other European revellers.

Fewer tourists who spend more are what Spain is theoretically now looking for, and the rise in American, Japanese and European tourists other than Brits signify less of a dependence on the British market, one which tends to maintain the country’s tourism status quo for better or for worse.

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