According to a research more than 5,6 million Italian travellers have already planned to go on vacation from April and an additional 9,3 million travellers will probably take a vacation that present an increase in travel compare to 2009.

Michela Vittoria Brambilla, Tourism Minister of Italy Michela Vittoria Brambilla, Tourism Minister of Italy

South Africa promoted World Cup 2010 at its stand South Africa promoted World Cup 2010 at its stand

Workshop at BIT Milan 2010Workshop at BIT Milan 2010

In total, Italians took 94.2 million vacations in 2009, 71.7 of which to domestic destinations and 22.5 million of which to foreign ones. The classic seaside holiday was once again confirmed as a must (52.3%), followed by vacations in art cities (24.5%) and Italian mountain destinations (17.1%).

Heading the list among the most popular destinations was Tuscany, Emilia Romagna and Trentino Alto Adige, while the preferred foreign destinations were the traditional France, Spain and Greece.

According to the forecasts done by Unioncamere-Isnart for 2010, 30% of stays in Italy should take place during the Easter period with Trentino Alto Adige topping the preference list (14.9%), followed by Tuscany (11.2%) and Lazio (11%).

Over 7.2 million (48.3%) therefore intend to remain in Italy, while 5 million will go abroad and 792,000 (5.3%) will take more than one vacation, visiting both destinations. 13%, equal to 1.9 million, are undecided. For these upcoming vacations Italians will spend over an estimated 11.1 billion euros. Of this amount, 5.4 billion euros will remain in Italy with estimated per capita spending at 674.24 euros and over 5.7 billion euros will be dedicated to vacations to foreign destinations, costing an estimated 994 euros per capita.