Promotion and Marketing: Marketing Strategies, Italy, Regional Development
5.3 Supply and Demand
Analyzing the supply and demand of the thermal tourism in Italy is a very complicated task, due to the complexity and heterogeneity of the structures and the types of users.
With regards to the tourist supply, in Italy there are both health and receiving facilities. In the latter case, the recreational purpose is combined with the thera- peutic one.
The main objectives of the Italian thermal enterprises should be to satisfy the demand for tourist consumption which focuses on the psychological and physical well-being; as a matter of fact, nowadays there are more and more packages that offer local typical activities, be they cultural, religious, social and environmental.
Due to the continuous changes in the thermal industry offer, a dichotomy between the product care- thermal treatment and the product well-being has been established, the former driven by the need for preventive health care or nursing and rehabilitation, and the latter to target customers who need to relax, maintain physical fi tness and improve the general state of health.
The fact that Italy is the European country with the highest number of thermal baths, especially due to its unique geological shape rich in volcanoes, justifi es the role that thermalism has always played in the national economy.
The wellness enterprises in Italy are over 30,000, 78 % of them located in the regions of Northern Italy. Within this set, the well-being spas are 2,488, or 8 % of the total, two-thirds of them in the North. It is estimated that the total turnover of the spas (salus per aquam), half of which linked to hotels, has passed the 1 billion Euros mark in 2009 and reaches a total of 4 billion Euros with all other productive activities.
Thermal destinations and wellness tourism receive 4.2 % of the estimated number of tourists in accommodation facilities such as hotels and other facilities in Italy, or over 15 million people every year (Federterme 2011 ).
From a territorial point of view, it can easily be inferred how facilities are concentrated mainly in some regions. The distribution between the different areas and regions is conditioned by the high incidence of facilities in hospitality estab- lishments. The regions with the highest number of thermal baths are Campania (114) and Veneto (110), followed by Emilia-Romagna (24), Tuscany (22), Lazio (18), and Lombardy (16). For what concerns Campania and Veneto, given the typi- cality of the offer, based on thermal hotels, the phenomenon is more diffi cult to quantify because many services are included in the packages offered and are not registered. From this territorial distribution, it is possible to observe the impact that thermal baths have had in the regions on an economic level. The Northern part of Italy has in fact been able to seize the opportunity immediately, creating many jobs (the data show a higher number of human resources employed and quality of the service) (Federterme 2011 ).
Tuscany, Veneto and Trentino Alto Adige registered the highest number of tourist fl ows in thermal baths, both in terms of arrivals and stay. In recent years, room occu- pancy in the thermal towns, although never falling below 30 %, has experienced a signifi cant decline (Figs. 5.1 , 5.2 and Table 5.1 ).
The data are different if one considers the thermal industry on the basis of accom- modation facilities dedicated to thermal baths or that have a spa inside the hotel.
According to the 2011 Report by Federterme, the Italian enterprises classifi ed as ther- mal companies are 378, and offer, altogether, 27,867 beds, of which almost 50 % are located in Northern Italy. Veneto is the fi rst Italian region with 85 thermal enterprises, followed by Campania (55) and Tuscany (23). According to the data from ISNART relating to the capacity of accommodation establishments, the thermal municipalities in Italy are 93, with 3,709 facilities in them, of which almost 60 % is made up of complementary businesses (mostly rental houses). For what concerns the number of beds available, campsites and holiday parks offer the largest share (about 10,000).
The accommodation capacity in thermal destinations is about 27,867 beds, of which more than half mainly in 3 and 4 star hotels (Fig. 5.3 ).
Veneto ranks fi rst among the regions with the highest concentration of accom- modation facilities, followed by Tuscany and Campania.
The total volume of business of the thermal industry amounts to 787,964,000 Euros in total revenues (1.7 % more than the previous year), of which 54 % coming from thermal treatments, 35.6 % from accommodation services and 10.2 % from well-being treatments (Federterme 2011 ).
According to ISTAT data on the movements of tourists in accommodation facili- ties, the arrivals at thermal facilities were 3,300,000, while the stays amounted to approximately 13,100,000, mostly during the summer months.
Cities of historical and artistic interest Marine locations
Lake resorts Mountain resorts
Hill resorts and other areas of interest Thermal resorts
Other locations
Fig. 5.1 Arrival of foreigners for type of Federterme
Cities of historical and artistic interest Marine locations
Lake resorts Mountain resorts
Hill resorts and other areas of interest Thermal resorts
Other locations location
Fig. 5.2 Stay of foreigners for type of Federterme
Fig. 5.3 The accommodation capacity. Note: 5 stars and 5 stars superior- 4 starts- 3 stars- 2 stars- one star – tourist residences (Source: ISTAT)
Table 5.1 Arrival of foreigners in the Italian regions –year 2012 a
Region Arrivals Stay Average stay
Veneto 10,230,469 40,387,375 3.9
Lombardy 6,883,106 19,074,599 2.8
Lazio 6,664,244 20,516,459 3.1
Tuscany 6,448,902 22,307,426 3.5
Trentino-Alto Adige 5,190,906 25,722,989 5.0
Emilia-Romagna 2,345,340 9,632,676 4.1
Campania 1,863,347 7,976,125 4.3
Sicily 1,783,117 6,310,821 3.5
Piedmont 1,577,733 5,126,185 3.2
Liguria 1,463,312 4,669,572 3.2
Friuli-Venezia Giulia 1,004,670 4,263,162 4.2
Sardinia 872,115 4,400,649 5.0
Umbria 619,294 2,068,932 3.3
Apulia 578,279 2,286,595 4.0
Marche 366,125 1,854,481 5.1
Aosta Valley 337,626 1,130,915 3.3
Calabria 244,501 1,645,323 6.7
Abruzzo 191,808 1,030,797 5.4
Basilicata 60,599 148,094 2.4
Molise 13,082 41,813 3.2
TOTAL 48,738,575 180,594,988 3.7
Source : Istat Isnart
a Data for Lazio and some municipalities of Sardinia have been replicated with the ones from the last available year
The thermal industry presents quite heterogeneous features that allow for a simple division of the thermal enterprises in different typologies according to the criteria used, such as, for example, the type of mineral water used and the ways in which the water is administered; as a matter of fact, there are some types of mineral water that can be used for hydroponic therapy as well as aerosol therapy.
The person who benefi ts from thermal facilities is called curista, and goes to thermal baths almost exclusively to undertake certain therapies.
In most cases, the curista is a fairly old person, whose stay is quite long and is highly loyal to both the thermal baths and the surrounding structures and prefers half or full board.
The customers are mainly of Italian nationality, representing over 60 % of arrivals and stay.
Compared to previous years, the overall decline of tourists in Italy, which is a refl ection of the international fi nancial crisis, has also affected the thermal industry with a decline of 1.1 % in the arrivals and 1.3 % in the stay (Table 5.2 ).
If one examines the foreign demand, which represents altogether 3.1 % of the total, the visitors mainly come from Austria, Switzerland and France; among the reasons for choosing thermal resorts, there is the desire to relax, the possibility to take care of one’s own body while at the same time enjoying the natural beauty of the location, and the proximity to the city of origin. On average, tourists spend, per capita, 100 Euros for travel arrangements and about 76 Euros for accommodation for their thermal holiday. The data show good sales performances in the accommodation and extra accommodation businesses in the thermal resorts (Tables 5.3 and 5.4 ).