The Center for Advanced Studies in Tourism has decided to monitor the booking activity of a sample of 331 hotels in Milan and 281 in Venice on a well-known Online Travel Agencies (OTA). The sample includes three, four and five-star hotels.
Northern Italy has been one of the epicentres of the Covid-19 outbreak and, since the 9th of March, 2020, the country has been in lockdown. According to the first government decree to deal with the emergency, hotels were allowed to stay open, to host medical personnel dislocated for the emergency and other business travellers working in essential sectors. Nevertheless, the gret majority of hotels decided to close down. However, even in these weeks, most hotels have continued managing bookings for future dates and, in a period of great uncertainty as never seen before, advance booking management can provide relevant information on the expectations of the hotel sector in the short and medium run.
Reports will be published every two weeks.