According to UNESCO, more than half the world’s artistic and historic patrimony can be found in Italy, a country that boasts hundreds of archaeological sites and over 2000 museums. As Italy slips from third to fifth as a top tourist destination, we reflect on what tourism means to the Italians.
Tourism is one of the Italian economy’s most important engines of growth: every year foreign travellers spend over 30 billion euros in Italy.
According to the Italian Tourism board, this essential sector, including the activity it generates, contributes approximately one-third to the overall GDP (total: EUR 1.8 trillion) by creating over one million jobs. Two-thirds of Italy’s Gross Domestic Product (approximately 69%) is represented by the services sector, whose most essential component is tourism.
With more than 36.5 million tourists a year, Italy is the fifth most visited country in the world, behind France (76.0 million), Spain (55.6 million), the United States (49.4 million), and China (46.8), according to the World Trade Organisation.
But not everything is rosy in the land of Roman ruins and gelato. Recently, Italy has slipped from third to fifth place in the Country Brand Index drawn up for the third year in a row by the FutureBrand consultancy firm.
Australia once again topped this year’s list followed respectively by the United States, Britain and France.