Digital Tourism gap reveals that Italian market is still scalable

A research from the Observatory of Digital Innovation in Tourism from the School of Management of Polytechnic of Milan on 2.000 firms shows that overall expenditure for tourist purposes in Italy will reach 52 billion of Euro in 2016, with a +3% YOY and a +8% if considered only the digital component.

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Source: Observatory of Digital Innovation in Tourism

The Italian tourist digital demand is healthy and it accounts for a total of 10,3 billion of Euro. Transport is a 72% (+9% YOY), accommodation 16% (+6%) and tourist packages 12% (+10%).

Non-hotel accommodations and short terms holidays are growing, probably due to the development of the platform economy. Mobile commerce records a +65% if compared to 2015 and business travel represents the 10% of the total transactions, 1 billion worth.

The research demonstrate that the Italian market is growing and that digital accounts for the 20% of the total tourist transactions. While demand is expanding, 50% of the firms in the accommodation and in the restaurant business owns a poor presence on online platforms and review site.

At Twissen we observed that a number of tourist organisation, both public and private, still have to consider a digital strategy and that there is lack of effective activities in social media marketing. To meet the competition at a global level, more should be done to fill the gap.



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