Distribuzione e Revenue

🏖️ Advance bookings surged to 60% for holiday trips, with an average duration of 8.2 days and an average expenditure of €2,400 per person. Revenue growth of 12% was observed for Christmas and New Year holidays, compared to the previous year. Popular destinations include the Red Sea, East Africa, Southeast Asia, and long-haul locations like the Maldives and China. Optimistic revenue growth predictions for 2025 range between 5-7%. Data was provided by ASTOI Confindustria Viaggi in Rome on December 6, 2024.

🏠 Lindbergh Hotels, founded by Nardo Filippetti, saw a +10% revenue increase in summer 2024, reaching €29 million, despite no longer including one of its previous properties. Pesaro, named a city of culture in 2024, contributed to the success with hotels like the 4-star Charlie hotel and the 5-star Excelsior Spa e Lido, now part of Preferred Hotel e Resorts. The group's properties across Italy, including Sicily's Sikania Eco Resort and Modica Beach Resort, and Taormina's renovated Grand Hotel San Pietro, experienced robust occupancy from mid-April to mid-October.

💹 Skift Research, in September 2024, predicts direct digital channels will overtake OTAs by 2030, with direct bookings increasing from 25% in 2024 to 42% in 2030. Max Starkov highlights systemic issues, noting hotels invest only 2.6% of room revenue in technology and less than 2.5% in marketing, compared to OTAs' 15% in technology and up to 54% in marketing. Strategies suggested include boosting technology investment, enhancing marketing, and training staff in digital skills for hotels to compete effectively and increase direct bookings.

🏡 Orient Express La Minerva, the world's first Orient Express Hotel, is set to debut in spring 2025 in Rome, near the Pantheon. The five-star luxury hotel, housed in the 1620-built Palazzo Fonseca, will offer 93 luxury rooms and suites following its acquisition by Arsenale Spa in 2021. Room sizes range from 25 to 235 square meters, including 36 suites and 4 Signature Suites with rates from 1,000 euros for classic rooms to 15,000 euros for Signature Suites. The hotel also features Mediterranean cuisine at Voliera restaurant and bar, a lobby lounge bar, a speakeasy, patisserie, wine cellar, and a spa.

🏖 VOIhotels, part of Alpitour World, collaborates with Blastness for exclusive online sales and distribution systems. This partnership, announced after a competitive global selection process, marks an evolution in VOIhotels' digital sales strategies. Andrea Delfini, CEO of Blastness, highlights the personalized technology integration as a key success factor. In 2023, Blastness processed bookings over €1 billion, and in summer 2024, direct sales matched those of Booking.com, evidencing the potency of Blastness' solutions.

💰 Blastness selected by VOIhotels, part of Alpitour World, to provide booking engine and channel manager for its 18 sun & beach resorts and 8 luxury VRetreats. The partnership, resulting from a competitive global tender, aims to evolve VOIhotels' digital sales strategies through improved customer experience. In 2023, Blastness processed bookings worth over €1 billion, matching Booking.com's direct sales in summer 2024. Angelo La Riccia, VOIhotels Commercial Director, highlights the strategic move to optimize customer purchase experience and strengthen client relationships.

🏆 Air Europa boosts its service for the Christmas holidays by deploying its flagship Boeing 787 to cover all flights to high-demand destination Punta Cana. The airline offers over 17,100 additional seats on more than 70 extra flights across popular routes from December 20 to January 7. Specifically, for Punta Cana, Miami, and Caracas, 4,400 extra seats are available from Madrid-Barajas, including over 3,100 seats to the Dominican Republic via 10 additional flights utilizing the Dreamliner 787-9. Spanish islands gain over 8,300 seats, with 5,400 allocated to the Balearic Islands and 3,000 to Tenerife North and Gran Canaria, while Milan, Rome, Munich, and Zurich see an increase of 4,400 seats collectively.

🏖️ In 2023, Italian tourism reached a historic high with 133.6 million arrivals and 447.2 million overnight stays, surpassing the 2019 peak of 131.4 million arrivals and 436.7 million overnight stays. Tourism flows increased by 12.8% for arrivals and 8.5% for overnight stays compared to 2022. Foreign tourists represented 52.4% of the demand, with a 23.2% increase in arrivals and 16.5% in overnight stays year-over-year. EU-wide, Italy ranked third in total overnight stays, accounting for 15.2% of the EU's total. However, preliminary 2024 data indicates a slowdown, with a 3.6% decrease in arrivals and 1.4% in overnight stays in the third quarter compared to the same period in 2023.

🛍 Shopping tourism globally declined from $86 billion in 2019 to $72 billion in 2023, a $14 billion loss according to Kearney for the Tax Free World Association, using IATA and Generation Research data. A 16% drop in average spending per passenger was noted, with perfume and beauty product sales plummeting by 31%, despite being the favorite category among airport big spenders. Wine and spirits sales decreased by 14%. High prices deterred 36% of shoppers, particularly younger buyers. However, 2023 shows a trend reversal, with travel retail predicted to reach $117 billion, about €111 billion. In Italy, tax free shopping threshold changes in February could lead to even greater tourism balance benefits. (For more information: https://www.tfwa.com/research/tfwa-insight/tfwa-insight-travel-retails-moment-of-truth-100015543; https://www.kearney.com/; https://www.iata.org/; https://www.generation.se/; https://www.atritalia.it)

💐 Rome is the most searched honeymoon destination with 600 global monthly searches and an average lodging cost of $1,461 for a week-long stay in July for two. Sicily matches Rome's search volume but averages $620 per week. Lake Como and Sardinia rank third with 450 monthly searches, costing on average $1,096 and $766 per week respectively. Tuscany is fourth with 400 searches and a weekly cost of about $820 for two, while Venice is fifth with 300 searches and an average weekly stay of $1,277.