Summer 2023, food and wine tourism boom: spending at the table exceeding 15 billion

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Over a third of tourist spending in the summer of 2023 will be destined for the table, for a value exceeding 15 billion euros to consume meals in restaurants, pizzerias, trattorias or agritourisms, but also for street food or food and wine souvenirs in markets, festivals and village festivals. Coldiretti estimates it for the next summer of tourism in Italy, with 15.6 million Italians who have decided to go on holiday in July, an increase of 1% compared to the same period last year. A scenario that demonstrates the centrality for the Made in Italy holiday of the national food and wine heritage which is spread throughout the territory and on whose valorisation, Coldiretti specifies, many of the opportunities for economic and employment development depend.

Over a third of tourist expenditure destined for the table

Food is therefore the most important item of the summer holiday budget in Italy, so much so that – underlines Coldiretti – it has become for many tourists the main reason for travel with the boom in food and wine tourism also thanks to the numerous enhancement initiatives, from festivals to of wine, up to over 25,000 holiday farms.

Italian cuisine – adds Coldiretti – has become a world leader being able to count on the greenest agriculture in Europe of 5,547 specialties are obtained according to traditional rules protracted over time for at least 25 years surveyed by the Regions, 319 Dop / Igp specialties recognized at community level and 415 Doc/Docg wines, the leadership in the organic sector with around 86,000 organic farms, 25,000 farmhouses that have kept the secrets of country cooking for generations, 10,000 farmers in direct sales with Campagna Amica.

A UNESCO candidacy to protect Italian cuisine

A heritage that is important to protect as demonstrated by the candidacy of the practice of Italian cuisine for inclusion in the representative list of intangible cultural heritages of humanity by Unesco, underlines Coldiretti. A necessity in a situation in which six Italians out of ten (60%) traveling abroad for work or on holiday have come across at least once a fake Made in Italy dish or specialty, according to the Coldiretti/Notosondaggi analysis.

False food products: negative impact of 580 billion

From spaghetti carbonara with cooked ham instead of bacon and grated cheese instead of Roman pecorino to tiramisu with cream instead of mascarpone or spaghetti bolognese, an invention for foreigners completely unknown in the Emilian city. “The lack of clarity on Made in Italy recipes offers fertile ground for the proliferation of fake Italian food products with a negative impact on the economy and work in a supply chain that from fields to shelves to restaurants is worth 580 billion euros”, concludes the president of the Coldiretti Ettore Prandini in specifying that «the economic and employment value for the country is added to the cultural value».