Some 9.6 million Italians will travel for Christmas and New Year 2008, according to research by Italian hotel operators' association Federalberghi.
Hotel operators in Italy expect the Christmas and New Year's holidays to be in line with last year, even though more Italians will take advantage of the strong euro and travel abroad.
Of the Italians who decide to take a break away from home, more than two million will go on a week-long vacation from December 25, 2007 to January 1, 2008.
About 80% of Italians will spend the holidays in Italy, while 20.8% will go abroad for Christmas and 21.1% for the New Year's Eve. These figures compared to 13.7% and 17.5% in 2007.
Some 7.7 million Italians will remain in the country, compared to 8.0 million, while around two million will travel abroad, against 1.4 million.
The turnover generated during the holiday period is expected to be some 6.0 bln euros ($8.773 bln).
According to Federalberghi, more than 16 million adult Italians, some 34.6% of the population, will not go on holidays because of increased costs.
