ReportsITALY
The government has been aiding the country through the recession by helping companies to invest in their businesses with lowering taxes on profits, helping businesses with research and innovation and safeguarding employment.
Amongst other measures approved in parliament before the summer break were tax shields for capital return, new pension schemes, financial incentives for small and medium companies and collective indemnity for domestic workers.
On the plus side tourism is one of the fastest growing and most profitable sectors for the national economy with 43.7 million international tourist arrivals and total receipts at around US$42.7bn. Italy is the fifth major tourist destination and the four highest tourist earner in the world. Rome, Florence and Venice are the top three tourist destinations and Italy is also home to 43 UNESCO World Heritage sites.
Italy offers a complete range of tourist delights from skiing in the Alps, to the ruins of Pompeii to the vineyards in Tuscany. Visitors can relax on sandy beaches or history lovers can visit some 3,000 museums, churches and archaeological sites.
The islands such as Capri and Ischia offer thermal spas whilst the cities provide sightseeing trips and designer shopping whilst the country is also famous for its literature, music, theatre and arts, breeding the talents such as Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, Donatello, Caravaggio and Titian.
However although shopping is a huge Italian culture, shopping malls are far from typical due to a highly regulated environment.
Strange really when story has it that the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, which opened in Milan in 1877, was cited as the inspiration for the modern enclosed shopping mall.
The first Italian shopping mall, Cittamercato, opened in 1972 in Brescia but by 1987 only 40 centres larger than 53,000 sq.ft had opened in the country. Development after this time did accelerate, however Italy today still only has around 500 shopping centres.
One of the main reasons for the growth in recent times is the need for hypermarket retailers and many foreign brands are urging development.
Traditionally Italy was made up of the small family owned grocery stores which at one time represented about 60 per cent of the existing selling space in Italy.
These far out numbered the supermarket and discount stores. However times have changed recently as people have less time to shop daily in the small local delis whilst more affluent families now do their weekly stock up at the supermarkets, and ethnic specialities, which once covered one or two shelves, are now taking over whole stands as tastes begin to vary.
Supermarkets have a market share of around 43 per cent whilst hypermarkets have a 14 per cent share. The main supermarket chains now include Coop, GS, Carrefour, Auchan, Esselunga (mainly in the north), Lidl and Conad.
HISTORYOFGAMING With a market that’s almost locked into a system of perpetual change it is however of course a huge appeal to manufacturers eager to provide new products for this market.
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