Tourists in Rome: data and numbers of 2015 and early 2016

Tourists in Rome: data and numbers of 2015 and early 2016

“All roads lead to Rome”: is it still this way?

Rome, the Eternal city; one of the cities you can not have visited at least once in your life; tourist destination for excellence: we know that. It takes only a ride in the center of the city to be surrounded from the chaos and the crowding, that, above all, during the summer months becomes almost unlivable.

But, in the concrete? How many tourists choose Rome as a tourist destination? Do we have a growth or a fall? And how much our not wealthy political and organizational situation of the capital can affect in a negative way?

2015 was, in general, another favorable year for the international tourism: according to the World Organization of the Tourism the international arrivals were 1,184 billion with an increase of 4,4%, that’s means 50 million more compared to 2014.  In the list of the world tourist destinations more attended of the same year, Italy is placed in the 5th place for the arrivals and in the 7th place for the entrances. In particular in Lazio there were more international arrivals (around 70%) than the interior arrivals (around 30%): you can see the data on the national agency of tourism website .

On the side of the foreign tourist flows in Italy, even the 2016 is favorably opened: according to the provisional Istat data, in the first two months the arrivals were 4.422.878, with an increase of 5,1% compared to the same period in 2015, while the presences recorded are 15.315.970 (+3,3%)

There are a lots of people who cry for the destiny of Rome for many reasons: devastation, abandonment, pollution, dangers, unliveable places, chaos, and, a summer new entry some mouse around the neighborhoods, and not only those more degraded. Said by the media and the newspapers (even the New York Times).

The image that the Capital gave of itself in the past two years isn’t among the best, but these things seem to not have interfered too much with the touristic data, maybe thanks to this general state too, that, seems to not being affected by the future of the national policies.

If we included the fear for terrorism and the investigation for the Capital Mafia, the disaffection for the city, both for citizens and audience, should go up  and as a result should provoke a fall in the growth percentage of the flows.

But the tourists in Rome are increased from 7,5 millions of arrivals recorded in 2000 to 13,5 millions in 2014 and they are increasing: touristic presences in the capital (the total number of the nights spent by the tourists in arrive) are increased of 46,5%.

However despite a little general flexion of the past years, the italian tourism in 2015 is grown and it’s expected a positive stability in 2016 as well. Rome isn’t an exception, it’s the opposite.

Accomplice the Jubilee, thanks to it the Censis estimated 33 millions of tourists and pilgrims in arrive inside the capital.  It doesn’t matter the political and deterioration state in some places of the city, Rome is always Rome, and the history, the culture, the beauty and the summer charm of this city continue to attract tourists, who probably accept a good hotel, resist to the hot weather, to the precarious situation of the public transports and even to some full dumpster.

Maybe the mixture of politics, dirtiness, and security alarm (which involve a lots of European capitals now can’t be used anymore as a deterrent), weren’t able to deject tourism, but can and must work as a motivation for improvement for the political and organizational level of the city: Rome could give, and receive, even more.

Ludovica Saverna

TRAD.: Giulia Peppoli