Adnkronos Milan, 10 Feb. (Adnkronos) – “We presented the 2024 data, now consolidated, which shows a 10% increase in arrivals and presences overall. The most significant data concerns international presences, which grew by 22%. What is even more interesting is that looking at the last ten years, during which we have implemented these policies making the best use of the European structural funds that have been made available to us, we have doubled the internationalization rate of our region: it was 20% in 2015, we have exceeded 41%. We have exceeded 20 million presences, an important psychological threshold. We have also exceeded 10 million passengers at the airports of Bari, Brindisi and Foggia for a few months and this has allowed us to open the route and the direct connection between Bari and New York, which was a goal we were aiming for".
Aldo Patruno, director of the Tourism Department of the Puglia Region, said this on the occasion of the Puglia Region's participation in the 2025 edition of Bit in Milan, the most important event in Italy for innovation in the travel and tourism sector.
“Finally, the most interesting data of all is employment: the number of workers in the tourism sector exceeds 200 thousand and has more than doubled compared to 2015. Therefore, these are extremely important results, which arise from the ability to bring together tourism and culture first and foremost, which will have to deal in turn with economic development, agriculture, the environment, the landscape, and above all with training, because the challenge today is the qualification of this tourist offer in terms of services, products, tourist organization and above all professional skills”, he concludes.