For decades, Italian families up and down the boot have followed the same summer routine.
They book their sun loungers and umbrellas at their regular beach destination for weeks, or even months, and decamp to the seaside for the holidays.
This year, however, companies based on the beach are reporting a drastic drop in visitors, especially those who stay for extended periods.
At the same time, Italy’s mountain ranges to the north are besieged by tourists.
Political factions are blaming price hikes at the coast for the lack of holidaymakers, but heatwaves and a changing climate are also key drivers.
Beach holidays in Italy are becoming more expensive
Italians are snubbing their beloved beaches in droves this year, with as much as a 25 per cent drop in visitors in June and July along some coastlines.
“We’re in the busiest tourist season of the year, but there aren’t any people: we’re here counting sheep,” one beach establishment owner from Abruzzo told Italian media.
Beach establishment association Assobalneari Italia has attributed the decline to the high cost of living and its impact on spending.
The cost of renting a sun lounger is now on average 17 per cent more than it was four years ago, according to data collected by the consumer association Altroconsumo.
On the beaches of Lazio, for example, it’s difficult to rent two sun loungers and an umbrella for less than €30 a day. This figure rises to €90 in the most popular seaside resorts in Puglia and Sardinia.
Italians escape to the mountains for cooler weather
Italians aren’t necessarily abandoning the beaches to stay at home and save money.
In sharp contrast to the crisis in beach tourism, there has been a boom in visitors heading to the country’s mountain destinations.
While it’s true that a break in the mountains on average costs less than at the beach, experts suggest it’s more to do with the climatic changes pummelling the continent.
June was one of the hottest on record globally, with Europe experiencing an intense and prolonged heatwave that saw temperatures soar above 40°C in several countries.
The heat abated slightly in July, but the month was still Europe’s fourth-warmest on record overall.
In response, tourists are turning to cooler climes for some respite from the heat, particularly Alpine areas like the Dolomites.
In Trentino, a northern area home to several national parks and mountain peaks, visitor numbers are already close to breaking last summer’s record of over 10 million.
‘We need to be good at promoting more than just a few iconic locations’
The surge in summer tourism has been a salvation for many mountain resorts struggling with warmer winters and a curtailed snow season.
But tourism experts say it is now vital to bolster infrastructure and management to prevent another case of overtourism.
“I don’t like the term ‘overtourism’; I prefer the term ‘bad management,’ meaning poor organisation of visitor flows,” Gianni Battaiola, president of Trentino Marketing, told Italian media.
Dozens of popular mountain destinations have struggled to cope with the massive influx of visitors this summer.
One example even made it into international media. High in the Dolomites, a hiking trail on Seceda mountain has become a renowned place for taking dramatic shots of the spiky Odle Peaks.
This summer, walkers and locals have been sharing images of the route jammed with queues of tourists waiting to take Instagram-worthy snaps. Some 8,000 people reportedly walked the path on a single day in July.
Frustrations grew to the point that local landowners decided to take independent action and install a turnstile with a toll at the beginning of a trail.
“In some areas, such as Seceda, Lake Braies, and the Tre Cime di Lavaredo, the influx is difficult to manage,” added Walter De Cassan, president of the hotel association Federalberghi Belluno.
“We need to be good at promoting more than just a few iconic locations. Just a few kilometres away, you’ll find areas that are equally beautiful, but still relatively unfrequented.”
Given Europe’s lengthening summers, tourism experts are also emphasising the attractions of the mountains in September and October, in a bid to spread out the visitor influx.
Battaiola of Trentino Marketing said autumn is “taking shape” this year, thanks in part to initiatives such as keeping mountain huts open later in the season and offering activities centred around the area’s autumnal gastronomy and viticulture.