Tourism expected to rise in August

(ANSA) - ROME, JUL 25 - Over 18.2 million arrivals are expected in Italy this August, up 3.2% on the same period last year for a total of 85.6 million tourists, up 0.8%, according to a survey carried out by Demoskopika which ANSA is releasing ahead of its publication.
    The growth is mainly due to foreign tourism, up 8% with over 8.8 million tourists expected to visit from abroad next month, according to the data.
    Spending by tourists has been estimated at 18.8 billion euros, up 4.7%.
    Meanwhile, the increase in inflation in the sector is growing - up 3.6% in June -compared to the same period last year, the survey found.
    According to the president of Demoskopika, Raffaele Rio, it is "necessary to keep it under control: it is nearly five times higher" than inflation in general.
    Demoskopika in particular calculated that the inflation rate in the tourism sector rose 1.2% on a monthly basis and 3.6% on an annual basis, mainly due to the hotel and restaurant businesses absorbing 85% of the growth trend.
    Overall, however, the survey noted that Italy registered one of the lowest inflation rates in the tourism sector in the Old Continent: 3.9% for prices related to the "tourism basket" used to measure prices, which was only preceded by Sweden (3.8%), France (3.2%) and Portugal (3.1%).
    Other destinations with a higher rate than Italy included the Netherlands (6.9%), Poland (6.5%), Austria (6.2%), Greece (6.0%), Germany (5.6%) and Spain (5.1%). (ANSA).