PREMERE PER LEGGERE IN ITALIANO
Cheers to the Tourism team in Lucca!!!
Despite the off-season and rain forecast for this Easter weekend, Europeans completely booked Lucca’s agriturismi (farm-based holiday homes) and flooded restaurants.
Attracting tourists even during traditionally “slow periods” is a huge victory for the city’s Pardini administration.
(For more information, see our interview with Mayor Mario Pardini)
As NOI.TV reported, the rain even offered beautiful photo opps for the many visitors.
VISITOR DATA FOR THE PLAIN OF LUCCA IN THE FIRST 7 MONTHS OF 2023 showed a BOOM: a 17.2% increase in the number of visitors (up to 237, 332) and a 14.5% increase in the number of stays (up to 643,354) which averaged 2.7-2.8 nights.
Twenty-seven percent more foreigners visited Lucca than in 2022. Most were from the USA, followed by Germany, Great Britain, France, and Holland, as well as many Australians. Their stays in the city also increased by 21%.
Twenty-seven percent more foreigners visited Lucca than in 2022. Most were from the USA, followed by Germany, Great Britain, France, and Holland, as well as many Australians. Their stays in the city also increased by 21%.
LEFT: An Italian-American family visits the top of the Torre Guinigi (above) with their Lucchese nanny during their extended stay in the city.
More Italians, almost 6% more than in 2022, also visited Lucca from Lombardy, Lazio, Emilia Romagna, other parts of Tuscany, and Piedmont.
Bus ticket revenue quadrupled during the period, according to the Pardini administration, registering €380,000 versus €95,000 last year. Assessor for Tourism Remo Santini attributes this dizzying increase to an ever-increasing use of public transport, especially by the many tourists staying in the suburbs.
Hotel and accommodation facilities of all types also experienced an increase so as of July 14, 2023, tourist taxes collected reached the sum of €585,699 against €399,844 in 2022, for an increase of 46.4%.
And finally, in the first half of 2023, the city’s Guinigi Tower, Tower of the Hours and Botanical Garden, also recorded a total of 132,978 visitors (about 20,000 more than in 2022), with revenues of €569,000, versus €467,000 last year.
“These important numbers speak of quality tourism,” says Assessor Santini, “further stimulating us to keep setting ambitious goals for [Lucca] while, as an absolute priority, not losing the city’s soul and identity, the true added values of our local offerings... Precisely for this reason” continues Santini. “The administration is simultaneously engaged in improving services and benefits for its residents, as evidenced by the addition of more parking for residents inside the city’s walls. The parking lots in Piazza Santa Maria are currently being reorganized, while more residential parking will be added subsequently in Piazza della Magione”.
“Without affecting the pocketbooks of our citizens, important results have been obtained and resources have been found to guarantee essential services and to organize new initiatives, comments the Assessor for Finance Moreno Bruni, “Which, as we have been able to ascertain in this first year of office, will enrich the territory and the activities of all citizens. Investments in tourism and culture,” he concludes, “always turn into precious resources for the benefit of the whole community”.
This updates our article published July 29, 2023
