After two years of the pandemic restrictions, Italy is expecting a good summer for tourism. For the first time, hotels in Italy are more crowded than in Spain and France, which has never happened in recent years, said Italian Tourism Minister Massimo Garavaglia, according to media reports.

The goal, he said, is to reach the numbers in tourism like in 2019, which is considered the best year in the history of Italian tourism.

The positive expectations of the coming tourism boom are also caused by domestic tourists. The minister said. "I think that, paradoxically, these two terrible years of the pandemic have also brought something positive. Italians got to know Italy better, they stayed at home and decided not to travel abroad because they enjoyed their stay here," the tourism minister said.

After the pandemic years, Italy's hospitality industry is looking for a record number of new employees. Some 390,000 positions are being sought in these sectors, but in 40 percent of cases, establishments are having difficulty finding the necessary staff.

Hoteliers complain of vacant positions, and in many structures, a third of the required staff is missing. "Because of the pandemic, hospitality and tourism could not guarantee the minimum stability that used to exist, and workers have moved on to find something else. They have taken jobs as couriers, construction workers, warehouse workers and drivers," reports Paolo Manca, president of the Federalberghi hoteliers' association in Sardinia.

Italy will have to do without several international markets - not only Russia, but all the Far East, that is, China, Taiwan, Korea, and Japan which are totally absent due to Covid. Americans, on the other hand, are expected to return in great numbers this summer.