Distribuzione e Revenue

🍾 In France, the 2024 wine harvest is set to be one of the lowest since World War II, with an 18% annual decline and 11% below the five-year average. Poor weather conditions have significantly impacted wine regions like Jura, Charente, Loire Valley, and Beaujolais-Burgundy. The decrease is attributed to climate change effects, with issues like flower and grape shattering, and downy mildew causing considerable damage. This comes amidst a global contraction in demand and internal consumption challenges, suggesting a need for the French wine industry to reassess its strategic approach.

🏕️ Italian tourists returning to India numbered 62,226 in 2022, below half the pre-COVID 2019 count of 128,720. The Indian Tourism Board's statistics are as of 2022. Ambassador Vani Rao emphasizes ease of obtaining an Indian tourist visa, now available online with a processing time of at least 72 hours, valid for a few days up to 3 years, with stays not exceeding 90 consecutive days. Additionally, over 8,000 Italians visited India for medical treatments last year.

💰 CDSHotels reports 8% revenue growth in the first 8 months of the year, with Terrasini Città del Mare and Riva Marina Resort witnessing a +17% and +13% increase respectively. Ada Miraglia, the commercial director, attributes success to quality service, customer care, and smart pricing, despite a volatile market due to unstable international affairs and economic challenges for middle-class families. Future outlook is positive, forecasting a 22% rise from September to December compared to 2023, with many properties fully booked in September and rising occupancy in October.

🏖 Foreign visitor spending in Italy grew by 8% in June, with a tourism trade balance surplus of €3.2 billion, up from €3.0 billion in June 2023. Italy's Banca d'Italia reports foreign travelers spent €6.1 billion and Italian travelers abroad spent €2.9 billion. The Q2 2024 balance hit €7.4 billion (0.4% of GDP), a rise from €6.7 billion in Q2 2023. EU travelers' spending in Italy surged by 14.4%, outpacing non-EU visitors' 5.4% increase.

📈 In Q2 2024, the market services sector in Italy saw a 0.3% increase in added value, offsetting a 0.8% decline in the industrial sector. The economy grew by 0.1%, with rental and travel agencies (1.4%), information and communication (1.2%), and professional activities (1.1%) leading the growth. However, wholesale trade connected to manufacturing fell by 0.4%. Service exports rose slightly year-over-year, representing 5.5% of Italy's GDP compared to France and Germany's 11.5% and 9%. Inflation in the services sector increased marginally to 3.1% in July and August from 2.9% in the previous quarter. Employment in the sector set a record, with a 0.2% increase in workforce units compared to 2022, driven by a 0.4% rise in salaried work. The financial and insurance activities (+0.3%) and the professional sector (+0.6%) saw employment boosts, while transport and hospitality services faced a 0.5% decrease, and communication and information services dropped by 1.3%.

🏨 In the 2024 Megahubs report by OAG, London Heathrow is ranked as the top connected airport, followed by Kuala Lumpur (Air Asia holds 35% of flights), with Tokyo Haneda in third place. Istanbul Airport has the highest number of connections with 324, while Frankfurt surpasses 300 destinations (304). Other top 10 European continental airports include Amsterdam Schiphol and Paris-Charles de Gaulle. The leading US airport is Chicago O'Hare International. Rome Fiumicino climbs from 42nd to 35th place, with Ita Airways being the top carrier there, having 35% of flights. Dominant carriers in top-ranked hubs include Vueling with 41% at Barcelona, easyJet 48% at London Gatwick, KLM 55% at Amsterdam, Air France 56% at Paris, the Lufthansa group 60% at Frankfurt, Turkish Airlines 79% at Istanbul, and Delta 75% at Atlanta in the US. For more information: www.oag.com.

📍 Albania's Tirana Airport welcomed a record 3.5 million travelers during summer (June-August), despite price hikes up to 90% in some areas. Compared to the same period in 2023, arrivals shot up by 45.8%. Out of these, 1.35 million flew between Italy and Albania, marking a 47% increase. From January 1 to September 10, 7.6 million passengers were recorded, surpassing the entire 2023 figure. The year-end projection is 10.5 million passengers. Prime Minister Edi Rama criticized absurd price increases in southern tourist spots like Ksamil and Sarande.

🍷 Global online wine sales are projected to hit $6.16 billion in 2024 and may reach $7.56 billion by 2029, with a compound annual growth rate of 4.2%, according to Statista's August 2024 report. The number of online wine enthusiasts is expected to rise to 327.76 million by the end of the decade. Italy's e-commerce wine revenue is forecasted at $557.84 million for 2024, with user numbers growing to 2.48 million by 2029. Tannico.it leads with a 2023 revenue of €64.6 million, while Vino.com is expanding across over 12 European countries.

🍭 The ICE market recorded a +4% increase for Robusta coffee and +3% for Arabica between July and August, reaching +80% and +57% year-on-year respectively. The primary price driver is weather impact uncertainty on Brazil and Vietnam's crops, with Brazil's Minas Gerais drought causing concern for the 2024/25 harvest. Sunflower seed prices rose +14% in early campaign to 422.5 €/t, reflecting a -5% EU, -19% Ukraine, and -6% Russia production drop due to drought, potentially leading to a -10% global sunflower oil supply decrease for 2024/25. U.S. peanut prices fell -18%, reaching the lowest level since June 2022, and -26% since the beginning of the year, despite the forecast of a +14% production increase to over 3 million tons for 2024/25. Argentina's peanut market saw a -3% decline mid-August and -21% since January 2024 highs, with record 2024 harvest estimates of 1.5 million tons, a +56% increase from the previous campaign.

🍷 The Liv-ex Fine Wine 100 index, tracking 100 top fine wines, declined by 1.0% in August 2024, with a cumulative drop of 5.4% since January. The broader Liv-ex Fine Wine 1000 index also saw a decrease of 0.1%, with a 7.3% loss since the beginning of the year, driven by losses in Burgundy 150 (-10.3%), Champagne 50 (-6.1), and Bordeaux 500 (-6.9%). Conversely, the Rest of the World 60 index rose by 0.8%, with Dominus 2014 leading with a 22.4% price increase. U.S. traders accounted for 64.0% of the total trade value in August, a significant increase from 10% in 2023.