Franco Grasso, tourism expert, states that with the new measures coming for the Christmas holidays, the Government is in fact (for the moment) saving the ski season and the hospitality businesses in the mountains. Here’s why.
With the new measures coming in for the Christmas holidays the government is in fact (for the moment) saving the ski season and the hospitality businesses in the mountains.
This is the opinion of tourism expert Franco Grasso who—always opposed to the defeatist proclamations from the world of tourism in recent months—looks at the facts as his experience dictates. A provocation? Actually, no.
Summary
March tourism
Already in March, in the midst of lockdown, with the tourism sector practically brought to its knees, he predicted a recovery starting from July, with an excellent August for seaside and mountain destinations, and a decent September. Predictions that have not been disproved. Not even those concerning tourism in art cities, which struggled more but still had “some business.” Not even those relating to a difficult June and a season that essentially extended into a surprising September.
“What we are facing now – explains Grasso – is not a catastrophic scenario. Unfortunately, Christmas and New Year’s won’t be as we expected, that’s true, but the traditional ski season actually starts from late January, mid-February. Therefore, mountain hotels will have time to recover what they lose during the holidays. Above all, the arrival of one or more vaccines should be encouraging, and it’s no coincidence that as soon as the first news came from big pharmaceutical companies, international bookings gained momentum again. I don’t want to comment on decisions regarding travel, family reunions, gatherings, or restrictions in general – continues Professor Grasso – because it’s not up to me to determine whether it’s a good decision.
On a human level, it saddens me to think that so many families won’t be able to embrace each other during these holidays. But professionally, I think I can say with unequivocal certainty that we are moving toward the end of this nightmare that has held us hostage for 10 months now. The light I see at the end of the tunnel comes from some concrete facts: the summer went well and I challenge anyone to say otherwise, because when everything reopened, everyone wanted to travel, to go on holiday (even those who had never stayed away from home before); the real winter tourism, the kind that involves the masses and fuels the economy, will get going long after the restrictions end (sad, aberrant but, alas, necessary); and the help of science. Again, it’s not for me to say whether treatments or vaccines are effective (but I have no reason to doubt them).
What matters is that people now feel much more reassured from a health perspective, and this allows them to start planning their lives again, including travel—which is a primary need, let’s remember, not an accessory—for every human being. Above all, news regarding vaccines and/or effective treatments against this damned virus will help revive the market that has suffered most in this incredibly peculiar 2020: that of art cities.
To this—concludes the expert—we can add the great capacity for reaction and adaptation that the tourism market possesses. That’s why I’m certain that come February, the mountains will be a major draw again, that from spring we’ll see foreign tourists return to our cities, and that in summer, all Italians and more will be by the seaside or atop a mountain, shaking off the negative feelings that this experience will inevitably have left us with.”
Who is Franco Grasso
Professor Franco Grasso is the author of three books on Revenue Management, the economic discipline focused on the dynamic pricing of hotel rooms and services in the tourism sector (though it can be applied to any industry). He is a popularizer/trainer of the subject, but also covers broader topics related to tourism—a world he knows deeply and in every detail. He has written hundreds of articles for specialized magazines, trained thousands of professionals in the sector, and taught at the most prestigious Italian universities (before opening his own school). He is not a politician, nor is he tied to any “brand” from the institutional world. He is a technician. He is an independent person who could share his opinions and advice, especially on the events of the past year—namely, the correlation between the pandemic and the effects on the tourism sector.
Pubblicato in TravelNews
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