Italian Federation of Travel Agents president does not share enthusiasm of tourism minister

(eTN) – “The strong signal of optimism set by the Minister for Tourism, Michela Vittoria Brambilla, leave us very puzzled,” Cynthia Renzi, national president of Fiavet, (The Italian Federation of Trav

(eTN) – “The strong signal of optimism set by the Minister for Tourism, Michela Vittoria Brambilla, leave us very puzzled,” Cynthia Renzi, national president of Fiavet, (The Italian Federation of Travel Agents), leaving no room for illusions about the statistics of the National Tourist Board.

“The increase in travel of Italian[s] does not mean increase in turnover (cash). The strong stagnation in consumption, in fact, has halved almost its expenditure budgets of Italian families, and revenues have weakened further,” said Renzi.

She emphasizes that a balance of the summer 2010 can be done only with data for July and August, “Which unfortunately at the moment are very negative. In almost every statistic regarding organized pachage travels shows, [there is] a decrease of 10 percent and turnover by 15 percent, compared to 2009. I hope I’m wrong, but the forecast for the coming months are anything but positive. The opinion of travel agents do not, in fact, share the optimism of politicians.”

“Over 13 thousand Italian travel agents at the moment continue to suffer the situation of contingency. The crisis is hitting destination and tourisms that seemed, so far, immune,” stated Ms. Renzi.

Renzi is calling for a confrontation to pull the strings in the field, saying: “We learned only few days ago of the failure of the British tour operators, Goldtrail, which follow[s] suit [for] the Italian tour operator, I viaggi del Ventaglio. We firmly hope that the summer season 2010 will not mark a record of collapse of the travel agents category,” concluded the president.

About the author

Avatar of Linda Hohnholz

Linda Hohnholz

Editor in chief for eTurboNews based in the eTN HQ.

Share to...