These are some issues touched upon during the “Made in Italy Summit” signed by Sole 24 Ore and Financial Times, where Bernabò Bocca, President of Federalberghi, and Giovanni Malagò, President of CONI, the Italian National Olympic Committee, took part among others.
“We came from two years of closures, the liquidity funds made by the hotels was used to pay the costs of the previous two years, taxes such as the IMU (tax on property) also paid during the periods of closure zbog pandemije,” commented Bocca. “Now we are approaching the low season where the tourist economy will be different. Hotel revenues do not pay for the increase in energy costs, [and] we are energy-intensive companies.
“Bills have increased by 600% compared to 2019, when the revenues could hardly cover all costs. That’s fine; there were no profits, but we kept going.”
“Today we must choose whether to pay the bills or salaries.”
The situation is complex. “We are forced to approach banks to obtain financing. The interest rates today are not what they used to be. We are entering a dangerous circle,” Bocca continued. “This will lead to the closure of many hotels that will not make it to stand up in the low season and re-open only in the high season 2023. It will also be a problem for the related industries, which take up 60% of the tourist’s spending. With the formation of the new government, we would welcome a Ministry of Sport, Tourism and Events.”
The comments of President Malagò of CONI were: “All the economic players in the tourism and related sectors are happy in view of the presence of major sporting events on our territory. We are talking about 36,000 employees, once fully operational, around the Milan-Cortina Olympics, with tax revenues of over half a billion euros that we bring into the system.”
