Covid, bad weather and rising costs: it's a black June for Italian beaches. The alarm was raised by beach entrepreneurs and the Altroconsumo association that verified compliance with the new anti-Covid regulations in Italian establishments.
MThe black flag for the 2020 season is Sardinia, which records losses of up to 80%, in Lazio and Molise (-75%) and in Campania and Basilicata (-70%). Things are not much better in Friuli Venezia Giulia (-65%) and Sicily (-60%), Calabria (-55%), Veneto and Abruzzo (-50%). Drops of 45% in Liguria and Marche, 40% in Emilia Romagna and Puglia, 30% in Tuscany. "For beach entrepreneurs, the summer season - says Antonio Capacchione, president of the Italian Beach Resort Union adhering to Fipe Confcommercio - started late and with attendance concentrated on weekends". “The luckiest ones – says Capacchione – received authorization to set up their facilities only in late May in order to then open the gates at the end of the month. But only in the second half of June did the first tourists begin to use the beach services, always provided taking into account the safety protocols. There were good attendances on weekends, but the numbers found are absolutely not sufficient to improve the accounts after a totally missed spring”. “The main cause, also for our category, was the Covid-19 pandemic – he adds – and the consequent economic crisis, so much so that some beach establishments this summer decided not to open at all because it would not have been profitable, with the consequence of the loss of several jobs, not only seasonal ones. Added to this were the adverse weather conditions, increasingly decisive with the concentration of attendances on the weekend, so if you 'lose' Sunday, you effectively nullify the takings of the entire week”.
The coronavirus has also forced people to review their habits based on the new rules of conduct. Beach establishment managers have had to adapt to the new guidelines decided on May 25 during the Conference of Regions and Autonomous Provinces in line with the indications defined at national level (Decrees, Inail and ISS technical documents): the guidelines were then implemented by each Region through specific ordinances, with consequent adaptations. The structural changes imposed on the establishments have generated new costs or will lead to lost earnings compared to previous years. Altroconsumo has therefore conducted a survey to investigate what new measures have been adopted in Italian beaches and what changes in tariffs they have entailed. None of the managers interviewed said they had installed plexiglass dividers on the beach but in all the beaches the distances between the umbrellas are respected (minimum 10mXNUMX of space for each). Under the umbrella, customers are allowed not to wear a mask, but it is mandatory to use it at the beach bar or when interacting with other people. In some bathing establishments, the children's play area has been closed and in others, entry has been limited. Furthermore, in some beaches it is not possible to receive guests from outside the establishment (some of these did not even allow it previously).
Regarding the space to be allocated to each umbrella, the survey shows that in some locations no changes have been made, such as in Cervia where bathers have a space of between 12 and 25 square meters per umbrella as in previous years. In the ranking for the largest space dedicated to each umbrella, we find Castiglione della Pescaia in second place (10-18 square meters), followed by Anzio, Porto Recanati, Litorale Palermitano (10-16 square meters), and, finally, Finale Ligure (10-12 square meters) and the Sorrento Peninsula (nd), where the beaches involved in the survey have declared that they respect the guidelines indicated by the ordinances, without sharing the specific data (it can therefore be deduced that they respect the minimum 10 square meters).
Article published on 1 July 2020 - 17:19
