Garda Tourism Begins Strong in 2023 as Cruise and Air Connections Improve

The first tourist season of the new millennium on Garda has started off on the right foot. The large influx of tourists during this period (in the photo, the lakeside promenade of Lazise), especially Germans who came to the “Gardasee” during the Ascension holiday, confirms what has been observed previously around Easter in April and the events linked to the period from April 25th to May 1st. Now, with Ascension, but more comprehensively with Pentecost in early June and Corpus Christi in mid-month, a trilogy of religious holidays and traditional spring vacation events, the Garda area becomes a meeting place for tourists from Central Europe and Italians.

Tourist situation and prospects

“An excellent start to the season in many respects, despite the period being characterized by weather conditions that were not exactly ideal,” clarifies the extraordinary commissioner of the Azienda di promozione turistica Riviera degli Olivi. “With indications for what will then be the peak of the summer season,” says Marco Zaninelli, “certainly better than in previous years. This is due not only to the trade fair activities of Verona Fiere with its long series of events that everyone envies us, but also to the strengthening of air travel connections and especially to the new Verona-Amsterdam flight by Air Dolomiti, which brings Garda closer to Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg — countries that contribute significantly to strengthening the tourist market of the Garda area.”

The more than promising prospects are not, however, supported—as in the past—by precise and punctual statistical data. Why is this? “Access to the regional information system is limited to only a few accommodation companies, and therefore the traditional system is also maintained,” explains Director Renzo Policante. “This means that the data on arrivals and stays transmitted to Venice must then be reprocessed by our statistics office, which inevitably causes delays in compiling reports. It will only be at the end of the month that we will have precise reports on tourism flow for the first four months of this year.”

At present, then, the only way to get an as-accurate-as-possible picture of how tourism flows on Garda is to rely on impressions and opinions of industry operators, who do not always agree with each other. Those from the middle and lower lakes are more satisfied and optimistic; those from the Upper Garda are less pleased. There appears to be a substantial change in trend among Goethe’s descendants, who now tend to prefer the southern part of the lake for their vacations — contrary to recent past, when Malcesine — with its approximately one hundred hotels — anchored the German clientele over time.

Changes in trends and local issues

What has changed to reduce this loyalty compared to the past? According to Vittorio Dapretto, with years of experience in the tourism field as Director of the Soggiorno Company and hotelier, a plausible explanation is that in Germany, families with more children have become more common in recent years. Those with more than one child, even for budget reasons, prefer to stay in less expensive residences instead of hotels or open-air accommodation structures.

But that’s not all. The lack of entertainment venues in the communes of the upper lake is certainly unfavorable for young couples, who tend to prefer the southern Garda area. It is a fact that complaints about how the tourism season is progressing in towns like Torri and Brenzone are voiced by Giuseppe Lorenzini, president of the lake hotels: “It may be due to the unfavorable weather or because tourists are going less, but what is certain is that shopkeepers and hospitality businesses are complaining about reduced spending.”

The situation is entirely different in Bardolino, Lazise, and Peschiera, where hotels, restaurants, pizzerias, and shops are doing well. “We’ve never worked as well as this year,” says one merchant. “We’ve already covered over 90 percent of availability with reservations,” admits a hotel operator. During weekends, the historic center’s venues are packed.

Certainly, there are also those who are worried because they are temporarily excluded from the favorable business cycle, or those waiting to see what tourist offerings June will bring before making any judgments.