Online commerce, shopping centres, demographic decline, the pandemic crisis. Many elements which, put together, have been contributing for years to undermine the foundations of “traditional” trade in cities, particularly in historic centres. AND even the one in Catanzaro seems to be no exceptionsupports an analysis of Confcommercio created in collaboration with the “Tagliacarne” study center which focuses attention on the period 2012-2013 and in which we can read a process of commercial desertification of Italian cities. A national trend, therefore, which is pushing for interventions and planning at a local level.
The cold numbers describe a complex reality in the city, with a drop of 101 businesses: in 2012 the retail trade saw 233 businesses in the historic center and 909 in the rest of the city; in 2019 the data stood at 200 and 862 respectively and “glided” to 148 and 726 in June 2023. In the hotel, bar and restaurant sector, the data show, however, a certain liveliness, even if more outside the historic center where the damage appears to be limited: in 2012 the historic center had 69 businesses, 277 in the rest of the city; in 2019, 64 and 329, in June 2023, 53 and 333.
Numbers that will end up on the table for discussion at city level to identify future strategies aimed at consolidating strong points and shoring up the most fragile sectors.
The Councilor for Economic Activities, Antonio Borelliexplains in a telephone conversation that the data show a ten-year trend at a national level: «The urban economic system – he highlights – needs to find new levers of development, to affect the effervescence of the community by stimulating a walk not only destined to purchase but also to revive these places.”