Business & Economy

Italy recaptures attention of tourists, charms celebrities Clooney, Jolie

Rome, Aug 5 (EFE).- The tourism sector in Italy is gradually recovering, although it is still far from reaching pre-pandemic figures, with celebrities from across the world arriving in the country to enjoy the summer season, including Katy Perry, George Clooney, Angelina Jolie and Orlando Bloom.

In Rome, the Colosseum is welcoming some 8,000 visitors every day, a clear improvement over the last few months, but still a small fraction of the 20,000 daily tourists it hosted before the pandemic.

With the absence of Asian and American tourists, Europeans are now the biggest audience for Roman antiquities, mostly crowded with Spanish and German visitors, as well as French and English people.

Italy expects some 7.2 million arrivals to the country between June and September, which would represent a 15.3% increase in arrivals compared to the summer of 2020, according to a Demoskopika estimation.

Throughout June, 66,000 people visited the Vatican Museums. Before Covid-19, the same number of visitors would be registered in only three days.

The hotel association Federalberghi compared hotel overnight reservations from the first halves of 2019 and 2021, warning that reservations have dropped by 67.3%.

However, they said that the industry seems to be reactivating, and that it is geared up to welcome visitors again, although “the numbers are far from what we were used to before the pandemic.”

Covid-19 travel restrictions have not stopped celebrities like George Clooney and family from taking a summer break at their mansion by Lake Como, where the actor even helped locals fight recent floods in the region. Their luxurious home was not spared by the torrential rain and mud.

Singer Jennifer Lopez and actor Ben Affleck were spotted on the Italian island of Capri, walking hand in hand through the streets under the attentive gaze of locals and tourists.

The actress Angelina Jolie spent a few days in Venice, where she arrived aboard the luxurious Orient Express. EFE

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