Salone del Mobile, Milan awaits the return of non-EU tourists

Listen to the audio version of the article

While work is already underway on the Fiera Milano pavilions in Rho to prepare the stands for the Salone del Mobile (scheduled for April 18-23), the Lombard capital has also begun to prepare to receive hundreds of thousands of visitors from all over the world. The world, with a concrete hope that this year the numbers will approach those of 2019, which are record years of visits to the fair and in the city.

The data provided by “The Next” (a report by Global Blue, which specializes in the tax-free shopping sector, together with Lybra Tech, which develops technological solutions for the tourism sector) presents Milan’s tourism and trade operators with a decidedly positive picture. The Russians will still be missing out, it’s true, and the Chinese will certainly be lower than they were in design weeks in the pre-Covid era, but the outlook is positive. “In these three years, the situation has changed radically – explains Stefano Rizzi, Managing Director of Global Blue Italy -. In 2019, the first two nationalities present in Milan during Salon Week were Chinese and Russians, who together accounted for 50% of tax-free shopping In the city, by 41% and 9%, respectively, of spending ».

The new geography of shopping

Two nationalities have completely disappeared in the last three years, including 2022, which has generally recorded a 90-95% recovery compared to levels of tax-free shopping (and thus by customers from non-eurozone countries), thanks to the primary contribution of Americans, Brazilians, Emiratis and also British . And Rizi adds, “This year we may not have this number of tourists coming from Arab countries, because the dates of the Salon Del Mobile coincide with the dates of Ramadan, but we still expect the return of many Americans and Chinese.” Suffice it to say that in the last two weeks the spending of Chinese visitors in the city has amounted to about 50% of the volumes of 2019: it is difficult to believe that this positive trend would not be confirmed also in the days of Design Week .

The main country of arrival is the United States

Furthermore, Lybra Tech’s analyzes reveal a 14% growth in travel and accommodation searches made between the beginning of November and the end of February for stays in April, with 80% of the demand coming from foreigners, primarily from the US, followed by the UK and Brazil. The most popular day is April 18th, the opening day of the salon.

“In this post-pandemic context, where the map of assets in the Salone del Mobile has changed a lot, knowing the origins of the visitors is essential for the organizers, so that they can organize the reception and the show most often in an appropriate way,” notes Rizzi.