Italian tourists more than made up for a decline in foreign guests in hotels over the Christmas period but operators appear pessimistic about the future and many expect to lay off staff, according to a report by national statistics bureau Istat.
Looking at the period from December 23 to January 6, compared to the same period a year ago, Italian hotels saw a 2.4% increase in the number of guests and a 0.9% rise in the duration of their stays.
This was thanks to a 4.9% jump in Italian guests and a 2.4% increase in their stays, which offset a 3.9% drop in foreign clients and 2.6% fall in the number of nights they stayed.
German tourists represented 43.6% of foreign hotel guests over Christmas, up from 38.8% a year earlier, while 26.6% were French and 20.5% Swiss.
Despite a positive holiday period, 22.1% of hotel operators said they planned to reduce staff in the first quarter of 2009, compared to 13.7% last year, while only 2.1% expected to hire more employees, down from 3.9% in 2008.
