Summer – for 60% Italians wine and food as souvenirs

Nearly six Italians out of ten come back from their holidays round our country with wines and food as souvenirs. This is the result of an on-line poll underlining that, despite the crisis, just 12% of the tourists do not bring home anything from their holidays. Wine, cheese, olive oil, canned food are the favourite kinds of food (58% of preferences), followed by the local handicrafts (25%) among which wooden or fabric objects. Postcards, gadgets and t-shirts are not very successful, they have been bought only by 5% of the tourists. A rapidly growing trend, fostered by the multiplication of food and wine routes, of the cities of taste or the fairies and every kind of festivals. “The so-called ‘eno-gastronomic’ tourism: it is said – is 5 milliard worth, it is for this reason that it has been recognized as the real engine of the Made – in – Italy holiday”. But the true novelty of the 2009 summer has been the opening of the markets of ‘friend-country’ farmers in a lot of touristic resorts where you can buy genuine products directly from farm to table. Even the foreigners like the typical, local product as the study made by the Piepoli – Leonardo – Ice Institute highlights: there is some evidence that one foreigner out of two (45% of the sample) remembers Italy thanks to its food and wine. Swedish and American people are really fond of these products, while the Chinese and the Russians prefer the products of fashion.