The impact of Covid ‐19 on international tourism flows to Italy

Evidence from mobile phone data

Bibliographic Data

ID21543645
AuthorsValerio Della Corte (0000-0003-2342-1505, Directorate General for Economics, Statistics, and Research Bank of Italy Roma Italy, corresponding author), Claudio Doria (0000-0002-0250-1955, Directorate General for Economics, Statistics, and Research Bank of Italy Roma Italy), Giacomo Oddo (0000-0003-2165-9296, Directorate General for Economics, Statistics, and Research Bank of Italy Roma Italy)
Year2023
Volume46
Issue5
Pages1378-1407
Publication date2023-05-01
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueWorld Economy (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0378-5920 • E-ISSN: 1467-9701
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/twec.13380
PMID36721456
OpenAlexW4313249388
LanguageEN
Citations received3
References cited21

This paper analyses the response to the COVID‐19 pandemic of inbound tourism to Italy looking at variation across countries and provinces. To this end, it uses weekly data on the number of foreign visitors in Italy from January 2019 until February 2021, as provided by a primary mobile telephony operator. We document a very robust negative relation at the province level between the local epidemic situation and the inflow of foreign travellers. Moreover, provinces with a historically higher share in art‐tourism, and those that used to be ‘hotel intensive’ were hit the most during the pandemic, while provinces with a more prevalent orientation to business tourism proved to be more resilient. Entry restrictions with varying degrees of strictness played a key role in explaining cross‐country patterns. After controlling for these restrictions, we observed that the number of travellers that could arrive by private means of transportation decreased proportionally less. Overall, this evidence emphasises that contagion risk considerations played a significant role in shaping international tourism patterns during the pandemic

Advertising · Business · Geography · Mobile phone · Pandemic · Phone · Telecommunications · Tourism · Computer Science · COVID-19 Pandemic Impacts · Diverse Aspects of Tourism Research · Migration and Labor Dynamics

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