Cup Has an Unwanted Impact on Italian Tourism; It’s Down

Ah, the World Cup. Lots of money, lire, dollars.

Not so far.

Touted as a boon to the Italian economy, the World Cup so far has been something of a bust financially for local merchants.

One week into the world soccer championship, many Italian hotel and restaurant owners are asking where the heavy-spending tourists are.

Marino Corona, president of the government’s tourism department, estimates that no more than 100,000 visitors have come to Italy for the first round of the monthlong tournament.

“There are too many empty seats in the stadiums,” Corona said, noting that only Italy’s games with Austria and the United States and the opener between Argentina and Cameroon were near-sellouts.

Corona said he doesn’t believe more than 1.5 million people will come to Italy for the event, despite earlier predictions.

Italy spent billions of dollars building new stadiums, refurbishing old ones, adding new subway lines or expanding old ones, hoping the World Cup would act as a magnet for tourists. Now, Italian tourism officials estimate there may be a 50% drop in tourism from a normal June.

Merchants, restaurant operators and hotel owners in Florence, for instance, have complained that playing host to three first-round games in Group A (Italy, Austria, Czechoslovakia and the United States) hasn’t helped tourism.

“The effect of the World Cup has been decidedly negative,” said Mario Lippi, president of the Italian Assn. of Tourism in Tuscany. “We expected that almost every hotel room in the city would be booked for the month of June. Instead, we’ve experienced a 30% drop from ordinary years.”

WORLD CUP ATTENDANCE

Yearly average attendance per match for final tournaments. In thousands:

average Year County attendance ’30 Uruguay 24 ’34 Italy 23 ’38 France 27 ’50 Brazil 61 ’54 Switzerland 36 ’58 Sweden 25 ’62 Chile 24 ’66 England 50 ’70 Mexico 52 ’74 West Germany 47 ’78 Argentina 42 ’82 Spain 34 ’86 Mexico 42