Year after year Rimini and all the other famous cities of the Romagna Riviera prove to be some of the favorite travel destinations of Italian people, but also of a great number of foreigners. You only need to enter any hotel in Cervia or in other cities of the Romagna Riviera to realize that there are always many foreign tourists in this region. Even now that the world economic situation is not easy at all, and although it has felt the blow of the crisis, the Romagna Riviera has not stopped attracting tourist both from Italy and from abroad. The data concerning last year are not totally positive, with a decrease of arrivals by 1,9% and of room nights by 2,7%. However, the region Emilia Romagna was ranked third among Italians' most popular summer destinations after Sicily and Barcelona. This is certainly due to a rich and variegated offer that mixes entertainment and proximity to art cities, excellent food and wine and equipped beaches. An offer that is meant to become even more diversified, according to the tourist office of the region, concentrating on the sector of wellness, for example, and on the deseasonalization of tourism to attract tourists and visitor all the year round.
Deseasonalization and diversification are not the only aims of the tourism market of the region Emilia Romagna, which is also trying to attract more and more foreign tourists, who have already showed to be more and more interested in the seaside resorts of the regions, and not only in summer: last year the number of tourists coming from abroad in seasons other than summer, indeed, increased by the 16%, while the number of room nights increased by the 6,3%. At the moment riding this wave seems to be a popular trend in Emilia Romagna, notably on the Riviera, and an evidence of this is given by the promotional campaign that has recently been carried out in Poland to attract tourists also from this country.
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In the meantime the interest of Russian tourists in the Romagna Riviera, especially in Rimini, has already increased, also thanks to the Fellini Airport, that has become the main Italian charter airport from and to Russia, with almost 264,000 out of 553,000 passengers coming from Russia (data concerning 2010) and an increase by 44% of the total number of passengers in comparison to 2009. However it is better not to crow over a victory too soon: according to Claudio Della Pasqua, the regional president of Asshotel (the Italian hoteliers associations), the profitability is still worrying, as hoteliers are obliged to keep prices at competitive levels to attract tourists, but these prices are clearly less profitable.
However, these data are positive and raise hopes for the future and for the development of the tourism sector. Moreover they are an evidence of the fact that the tradition and experience of a region like Emilia Romagna in the field of accommodation and tourism can be very useful in times of crisis.
