Presented Christmas in Verona, Lake Garda and Province

In keeping with the need to contain costs and guarantee the sobriety required by the continuing war in the heart of Europe, the Christmas in Verona, Lake Garda and Province event returns in 2022 with a series of events in the area that confirm the Verona area as one of the Christmas capitals. 

"We have succeeded in reconciling the needs for sobriety with those of maintaining the tourist profile of Verona as a capital city and the province in general, fourth in Italy for foreign presences and fifth at an absolute level," emphasised President of Confcommercio Verona Paolo Arena at the press conference. In addition to him, managing director Nicola Dal Dosso, Luciano Corsi of the Comitato per Verona and Michela Mendiola of Verona per l'Arena took the floor.

"An area capable, in recent years, of expressing large numbers with an important induced activity and significant economic and employment effects. It is significant that the province, in the summer and up to October, has managed to return to pre-covid levels in terms of arrivals and presences, with some peaks of excellence capable of expressing numbers even higher than in 2019. This is thanks to teamwork between companies and administrations, the stubbornness of entrepreneurs and thanks to projects such as Riparti Verona and Ri.Ver. of the Chamber of Commerce that gave a substantial boost to seasonal adjustment. To have done nothing would have been disastrous: in 2020, when anti-covid measures prevented the Mercatini from taking place, the enterprises of the city of Verona lost revenue of about 120 million euro determined by the induced activities.

"There is also great expectation for the imminent 8 December long weekend," added Arena, "when, according to Federalberghi-Confcommercio surveys, around 12 million 183 thousand Italians will be travelling: 94.1% of them (compared to 92.3% last year) will stay in Italy, 28% will choose cities of art. The overall turnover will be over 4 billion euro and we expect large numbers in the Verona area as well".

"The occupancy rate of rooms in Verona and the surrounding area for the 8 December long weekend already stands at 55% compared to 50% in 2019, a pre-Covid year with satisfactory average prices, such as to cover the huge increase in energy and raw material costs," Arena adds. 'And more bookings will come in below that will bring us indicatively around 70 per cent occupancy. Positive signals are also coming in from traditional and fast food restaurants, which are showing a lot of bookings and social contacts that can generate customers. We thank the Chamber of Commerce, as always fundamental for the success of the event we are presenting today.