This week Italy officially started its reopening, with most of commercial activities on again and the possibility to freely move within the Regions. These less restrictive measures still put high attention on social distancing and disinfection of all public spaces but they are the first steps to start living together with Covid-19 until a vaccine or a cure is available, with the restart of Italian economy and social life.
More info on the new Government decree
More info on Covid-19 cases in italy
TRENDS
The Coronavirus crisis has generated a significant number of “new digital users” with whom companies will be able to open a communication channel from now on. According to a survey realized by Nielsen in collaboration with the Business School of Politecnico di Milano, it has been registered a real “ecommerce boom”: in the week between April 20th and 26th, the gdo’s online store set a three-figure historical record (+305%), settling in the following days at + 150%.
The lockdown also had effects on the time spent in front of the TV screens: in Italy, traditional TV (free to air and pay per view) has been resilient despite the heavy repercussions of this emergency on programming – in fact, sports and many live shows are suspended. The average audience is growing and the relevance on Social Networks is in line with the average of recent months. The lockdown pushes the spread of streaming or Video On Demand offers, a trend that clearly emerges through the volume of comments on social networks (+140% vs. April 2019) stimulated by these contents. More info
A research by Sojern showed how the volumes of searches of inbound and outbound flights grew in the last weeks. The trend is registered all over Europe, first of all in France, followed by Spain and Italy.
The research also investigated which are the holiday places where travellers feel confident ranked by distance from their home, with a comparison between January, April and May. In countries like Germany, Spain and France, there is a slight reduction of international destinations, while in Italy and UK the preferences remained quite equal. In our country, 83% of interviewees would have travelled internationally in January, while 89% in April and 78% in May.
Hotels & TOs
-
Nine big names in Italian hospitality team up to thank the heroes of the Covid-19 emergency, including Hotel Il Pellicano in Porto Ercole, Hotel La Perla in Corvara, Borgo Egnazia, Hotel Cristallo in Cortina, Hotel Royal Sanremo, L’Andana and L’Albereta and Hotel Byron in Forte dei Marmi and the Plaza E De Russie in Viareggio; all of them joined together to offer hospitality (1 or 2 nights) solidarity and humanity to the heroes who fought in the front line: doctors, resuscitators and intensive care unit nurses. More info
- Accor signed a partnership with Axa assurances to provide with comprehensive and appropriate medical care to hotel guests worldwide. More info
-
Beachcomber Resorts & Hotels supports medical staff at the forefront of the treatment of coronavirus patients, offering special conditions with discounted rates up to 50% for an upcoming holiday. More info
-
Preferred Hotels & Resorts is growing with 26 new affiliates in 14 countries in the world, from January 1st to April 30th this year, even during the months of full emergency for the pandemic. More info
-
The global emergency has underlined the strength points of travel agencies and tour operators, which have been supportive to those travellers who needed to come back to their country because of Covid-19 and were in difficult situations with limited flights. Organized tourism has the reliability to secure for the upcoming months a safe trip thanks to their experiences and this can happen also for smaller realities and travel agencies. More info
-
Eden Viaggi is getting ready for the first Covid-19 summer by bringing in Family 2020, a thematic catalogue first of its kind, offering facilities that from the second half of June will open their doors for children-friendly holidays. More info
-
North Italy airports are ready to restart: Milan Bergamo Airport welcomed the first scheduled flight on May 18th operated by Wizz Air from Sofia. The airports of Venice-Treviso and Verona are also ready to reopen with all the necessary measures. Turin airport is open with the introduction of two new routes to Catania, Sicily and Alghero, Sardinia, operated by Volotea this Summer.
-
Next opening routes:
-
Alitalia will restart the connection to New York from June 3rd, with also operations to Spain from Rome and from Milan to South Italy. More info
-
Lufthansa and Eurowings will fly again over Italy from the beginning of June on routes from Naples, Catania and Olbia, while strengthening connections to Milan Malpensa – to Frankfurt, Dusseldorf and Stuttgart. More info
-
Air France already operates in many Italian cities including Bari, Bologna, Florence, Milan, Naples, Rome and Venice. In June it will be operating with 15% of its usual capacity. More info
-
Brussels Airlines resumes flying from June 15th and will gradually increase connections according to market demand and the lifting of travel restrictions in the various countries. More info
-
Lot will reopen domestic flights from next June 1st. More info
-
Finnair aims to reactivate around 30% of the usual number of flights in July and reopen strategic long-haul connections. From August, it will also reopen connections to Milan and Rome as well as Barcelona, Madrid and Warsaw. More info
-
Emirates is preparing to reactivate connections to Italy next May 21st on the Milan Malpensa-Dubai route with three flights a week but with lower capacity of 100 passengers From July 1st they plan to restart the routes Milan-New York and Rome Fiumicino-Dubai. Routes from Venice and Bologna could restart in August. More info
-
Ethiopian Airlines will resume operations to Italy starting May 21st with one flight a week.. More info
-
-
Ritz-Carlton continues to invest in luxury cruises forecasting the addition of new cruises to its fleet. More info
MEDIA
Architectural Digest will host a new initiative born in collaboration with Salone del Mobile Milano: #ADLovesSalone. For the first time in the history of Architectural Digest, an editorial container will be created and it will be a common hub for the production of content that the individual national editions of AD will adapt to their channels, online and offline, with the intention of supporting the industry at this delicate time, and to put their audiences and editorial teams in synergy to give companies and the Salone a narrative of international scope. DISCOVER MORE
“MioCinema”: the digital platform dedicated to auteur cinema debuts. This digital platform not only allows on-demand access to premieres, but also offers a selection of auteur films, original content, masterclasses and interviews. All this in collaboration with the cinemas, in order to keep the public’s relationship with cinemas, a social and cultural point of reference, alive. In the future, the platform aims to support theaters with a parallel, and not conflicting, offer of ad hoc titles and reviews.DISCOVER MORE
PEOPLE
“Stuck With U”, the new song by Ariana Grande and Justin Bieber, which is climbing the international charts, is a symbol of solidarity. The proceeds will go to the 1st Responders Children’s Foundation, aimed at supporting the families of doctors, paramedics, police and firefighters who first faced the Covid-19 emergency. DISCOVER MORE
The British royal family is doing everything they can to avoid being “distant or unreliable”: William and Kate are very active with video messages and institutional appointments on Zoom. The last initiative in which they participated was a video call to the nurses, with other members of the royal family, on the occasion of the international day that celebrates them. They also made many video interviews in favour of associations that deal with mental health. DISCOVER MORE
BRANDS
Ikea and We Are Social together against discrimination: with the message #casapuoiesseretu, Ikea invites everyone to make those who are still discriminated against because of their sexual orientation or gender identity feel welcome. This is the concept of the video signed by We Are Social which, starting from May 17, will be present on all social channels of the company to celebrate the International Day against homophobia, biphobia, intersexophobia and transphobia. DISCOVER MORE
The association by Antonella Camerana, non-profit organization Missione Sogni, which since 2003 has been making the dreams of sick and disabled children’s dreams come true, support s the project Il Tempo della Gentilezza, which helps the most vulnerable groups in the Covid 19 emergency with a series of live talks broadcast live on the FB channel of the non-profit organization with personalities from the world of art, culture and fashion. Missione Sogni will directly donate 8 thousand euros to the Italian Red Cross project “Il tempo della Gentilezza / Emergency Covid 19”. DISCOVER MORE
OTHER
A journey into the silences of the world during the covid-19: the lockdown led to a worldwide decibel decrease. The sound artist Stuart Fowkles created a website that documents the sounds and noises of the world, while Vanityfair.it has isolated “seven silences of the world in the time of COVID-19”, tracked down by the authors, who were interviewed and assigned a quote about silence: all women, except for the writer, because in a historical period in which women’s silence has suffered, it is right to give them a voice. DISCOVER MORE
Instagram with its Stories filters allows you to arrive – at least virtually – anywhere in the world, to make people feel like they are on holiday. This is a new challenge of the social media, after the popular sticker Stay Home (already used 100 million times), the one Buy a km0 to help small producers and the possibility to make donations during live shows.