The credit is to be spent on hotel accommodation in 2020, the tourism minister said.
“This year’s motto will be: go on holiday in Italy”, the words were spoken by Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte during the presentation of the “Cure Italy” decree, which provides measures to combat the effects of the pandemic, and reflects well the drama of the country that is driven by tourism.
And there are no alternatives, however. Now the government is trying to give concrete support to a sector that alone generates more than 13% of Italy's GDP (with culture accounting for 20%), while a very difficult tourist season is looming, with foreign tourists absent from the beaches and historic villages.
Foreign tourists to Italy are, in fact, fundamental, as the Italian Tourism Club Study Center points out: since 2017, foreigners represent more than 50% of the total tourism industry.
In short, half of Italy's tourism largely depends on Europe, from which 79% of all foreign (overnight) visitors come. With Germany in first place.
If in 2018 Italy registered 429 million presences in official structures (hotels and non-hotels), the risk is that this year 200 million tourists will be absent.
The holiday bonus
The tourism sector is, in fact, “on its knees”. And the state of crisis was not declared because “we are far beyond the emergency”, as explained by the Minister of Cultural Heritage and Tourism, Dario Franceschini (PD), on this Wednesday (06), about Mibact's initiatives to combat the Covid-19 emergency.
To this end, the minister has already outlined some of the most urgent measures. “Economic recognition for companies with a sharp drop in turnover should be non-refundable aid,” said Franceschini, according to a publication in the newspaper Corriere della Sera.
“We are working on a measure that assists those who paid rent in the months in which activities were closed,” he explained.
Interventions also include the “holiday bonus”, a type of tax credit for Italian families to be spent on hotel facilities in 2020, only on Italian territory.
Immediate help must also be guaranteed to hotels that remained open for some type of service but did not make a profit, the minister said.
When can we go on vacation?
But when can you go on vacation? “It’s not just politics that decides,” said Franceschini. “I have asked the Scientific Technical Committee for some indications that would allow reopening: they will respond to me within a week and, based on this, we will act as soon as possible.”
The holidays will happen, but they will be different from what we were used to: “We will have to keep our distance, wear masks, carry out hygienic and sanitary procedures”, he explained, “but the holidays can be done. This is also why we urge European authorities to adopt common rules, avoiding the risk of bilateral agreements between countries, because we saw that the epidemic knows no borders”, he concluded.
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