Already one of the most-visited countries in the world, Italy has never eased up on promoting its various regions to new visitors and residents.
As one of the first European countries to get hit with the covid outbreak in March 2020, the country has been working hard to revive a tourism industry that on most given years accounts for between 10% to 15% of the country's GDP.
While visits to cities like Rome and Venice picked up at lightning speed as soon as most restrictions were lifted, many of the country's more remote regions have struggled to recover from prolonged travel restrictions.
Even before the pandemic, local governments had been offering various incentives for people to help revive sleepy towns and underpopulated regions. Since 2017, an Italian government branch and ministry of tourism have been giving away castles to those willing to restore them.
Earlier this year, the government of the island of Sardinia set aside €45 million to pay 3,000 people €15,000 (roughly $14,670 USD) to live there for 18 months.
Taking The Train To Friuli Venezia Giulia
But while moving to a region for a year requires a combination of commitment and life circumstances more common to remote workers in their twenties, a flood of short-term visitors can also do wonders to revive a sleepy region's economy.
To bring more in, the region of Friuli Venezia Giulia has offered to pay the train fare for those who come from anywhere else in Italy between now and May 31, 2023.
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The northeasternmost region of Italy shares borders with Austria and Slovenia and is known as the home of both mountain and coastal hikes, Roman ruins and the port city of Trieste.
It is also a wine region known for many popular Italian white wines made with the Friuliano grape variety.
Visitors who come on an official Trenitalia route and stay at least two nights will get their train fare refunded by local tourism board PromoTurismoFVG. They will also receive a card offering them free access to museums, transportation on local buses and discounts at many popular attractions.
The dates of the promotion are likely strategically selected to drive tourism during the less popular fall, winter and early spring seasons.
The Slow And Choppy Return Of International Travel
Since countries like Italy started lifting travel restrictions in 2021, travel to Europe has been picking up steadily — three months into 2022, international tourism picked up by 182% from the year before.
While that is still 60% below what was observed in pre-pandemic 2019, many people now feel more comfortable taking international trips put off for more than two years.
The Bureau of Transportation Statistics reported that U.S.-based airlines flew a total of 66.4 million passengers in the first quarter of 2022, up 9.1% from 60.8 million passengers in first quarter of 2020.
Many Asian countries have been significantly more strict with pandemic restrictions but are also starting to reignite tourism.
Earlier this week, Hong Kong's Airport Authority announced that it would soon start giving out 500,000 free plane tickets to those who want to visit the island. The agency had bought them out in 2020 to help domestic airlines during a dry spell.
While welcome by the tourism industry, the increased travel demand is also causing a host of problems for airlines unprepared for the renewed "travel boon."
After seeing weeks of check-in lines of several hours, London Heathrow and Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport introduced caps requiring airlines to start rejecting bookings if the number of passengers departing on a given day gets too high.
