Calabria, immersed in its scorching summer, shows a reassuring profile. The attendance diagrams draw positive trajectories, bypassing the usual fences of vitality of the period and projecting towards optimistic forecasts. Of course, there is a past of shadows still to be disposed of with delays accumulated during the pandemic. According to Istat and Ministry of Tourism estimates, reworked by Confartigianato, compared to the last pre-Covid year (2019), Calabria (-18.3%) is the region that is struggling the most to recover the lost tourism shares. But there is no lack of signs of confidence. 2023 closed with 7.8 million tourist presences, with an increase of 7.1% compared to 2022. The growth of presences in the non-hotel sector (+9.6%) was higher than that of the hotel sector (+4.4%). The domestic component represents 81.9% of presences.
The leader of Confapi Calabria (who is also national vice-president), Francesco Napoli, sees «a summer season that has opened, without a doubt, with great optimism and confidence, especially thanks to the recognition of another Blue Flag for our region, a sign that we are working in the right direction. It is in fact an instrument of extraordinary territorial and therefore social and economic impact because it helps to orient tourists and travelers towards our seaside destinations. An award that involves local communities and that rewards the commitment and partnership work between public and private entities with an important return of image. The regional government is working well, after years of immobility that have not helped the economic recovery. As Confapi Calabria we appreciated and supported the agreements with Ryanair and Uber. Ours is in fact a region that, despite its natural riches, is unable to create income because it is substantially tied to domestic tourism. A clear gap compared to other regions of Southern Italy where the presence of a foreign clientele is more evident”.
