Regione

Do Arab friends know Molise, the green Italian region leader of tourist flows in 2020 despite covid?

The results of a survey conducted by the National Institute of Tourist Research, a company of the Chambers of Commerce of Italy, are emblematic. The italian Molise region has been chosen by more than 350 thousand Italians, thus becoming the first region of Italy for the increase of tourists in the summer of 2020. The study confirms the forecasts of Manuele Martelli, specialized in Development and Competitiveness of Tourist Destinations, who in April 2020 he was the first to inaugurate the debate in the region, launching the theme of healthy tourism. Molise italian region is the ideal territory to re-establish contact with nature, with excellent gastronomy, organic cuisine. A real oasis for those who love horses and are looking for healthly places where they can grow up healthy and strong.

Even in the pitch black, a glimmer of light. The opening words for a new hope. Which comes precisely from tourism, one of the economic sectors often most debated in Molise Italian Region: a green and healthy land rich in water, natural and landscape resources, but not in opportune development trajectories.

To reveal it, complete with numbers and analyzes, is a survey by Isnart, the National Institute of Tourist Research. In fact, the work places Molise region on the highest steps of a special podium: that of the tourist flows characterizing the summer just passed: under the heading “destination of the holiday in Italy” Molise region recorded an extremely significant increase. Stage percentages for Molise regione, second only to those of Umbria in general terms, but worthy of a resounding record (+ 109% compared to 2019) in terms of increase.

“On the other hand, what has changed significantly – reads the Isnart / Unioncamere document – is the relative weight of some holiday resorts: in some cases, there are regions with modest demographic dimensions but strongly characterized in territorial, environmental and naturalistic terms, whose tourist relevance more than doubled in the summer of 2020 “.

A tangible sign of the fact that Molise exists. And there are its natural wonders, its territory, its identity.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, Molise has always been the region of Italy with the fewest cases. Low from March to May, absent in summer and still low during the second wave. Molise, after Valle d’Aosta, is the smallest region in Italy. The orographic characteristics and the conformation of the Molise territory probably constituted a sort of anti-contagion barrier. Molise is rich in immense expanses of green, hills, mountains, still uncontaminated territories and a lot of fresh water.

In September 2020, Molise region won the national “Covid Safety Index” Oscar which analyzes the perception of guests, travelers and detects the confidence and perception of safety of tourists. The data emerges from a research by the ‘Data Appeal Company’. According to the ranking, the region is, in the perception of tourists, the safest place to spend their free time without risking any infections.

The fear of infections and the desire to opt for “low-risk Covid” destinations alone would hardly justify the more than doubled numbers in Molise compared to 2019.

An ascent that leaves no surprise Manuele Martelli, specialized in Development and Competitiveness of Tourist Destinations and founder of Visit Madagascar:

“I had already expressed myself on the matter, just before last summer, underlining how the pandemic would have been – and could still be in the future – an opportunity for redemption for small destinations on a human scale, because they are considered ideal destinations for post covid-tourism. Ethical, slow, sustainable paths, declined in terms of healthiness, including gastronomic ones “.

A trend that could remain imprinted in consumption practices for a long time, at the top of vacationers’ preferences:

From now on – continues Martelli – the theme of healthiness will characterize the change in tourist flows. And we are talking about credentials totally in possession of our Molise, which lends itself more than any other territory, due to its geographical characteristics, to favoring events with an easier social distancing, with its uncontaminated spaces, its green paths. These are all elements on which one we can and must invest – concludes Manuele – in terms of incoming and receptivity. Numbers and statistics in hand, Molise is in effect a privileged territory, as isolated as it is healthy, an experimental laboratory to transform deficits into advantages, isolation into opportunities, slowness into attractiveness, ‘non-existence‘ as a vehicle for tourism”.

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