Italian culture has now recovered from the pandemic and is growing. Federculture 2024 data

The 20th Annual Federculture IMPRESA CULTURE 2024 Report, presented today in Turin, presented an updated overview of the state of culture in Italy. The document, which each year provides an accurate analysis of consumption, funding, employment, and tourism, highlighted how the cultural sector is going through a consolidation phase after the post-Covid difficulties, but also how the management of cultural resources and policies is evolving. A particular focus of this edition was on the fundamental role of foundations in managing culture, an aspect that is transforming cultural offerings and highlighting some regulatory difficulties and uncertainties.

The event was organized by Federculture, in collaboration with the Polo del ’900, the Fitzcarraldo Foundation, and theCultural Observatory of Piedmont. The conference featured talks by numerous experts, including Alberto Sinigaglia, president of the Polo del ’900 Foundation, Rosanna Purchia, Councillor for Culture of the City of Turin, and Andrea Cancellato, president of Federculture, as well as representatives of other leading cultural institutions.

The national analysis: a growing sector

The Federculture Report showed that in 2023 Italian culture has finally latched onto the recovery after the difficult years of the pandemic. The data collected show a clear growth in the enjoyment of cultural activities, with a significant increase in household spending on culture, recreation and sports, which reached 101.27 euros per month, marking a 10 percent increase over the previous year. The increase is accompanied by an increase in the number of cultural activities Italians participate in: concerts, for example, saw a 10% increase (from 11.2% to 21.7%), as did theater (from 12.1% to 19.8%), museums and exhibitions (from 22.6% to 32.6%), and archaeological sites (from 20.7% to 29.7%).

Cultural employment has returned to pre-pandemic levels, with 825,000 people employed in the sector by 2023. This marks a recovery of 1.2 percent from the previous year, a figure that shows growth in cultural occupations even in sectors not specifically related to culture, which increased by 5.5 percent in 2023.

The focus on foundations: innovation and critical issues

The central theme of the Federculture 2024 Report was the role of foundations in managing culture. Participation foundations, in particular, were identified as a strategic tool for making culture management more dynamic and efficient. With more than 650 cultural foundations in Italy, including 60 in Piedmont, employing more than 1,460 people, this instrument has shown considerable potential in terms of innovation.

In any case, cultural foundations often face limitations related to regulations, which sometimes make the management of resources and activities complex. Bureaucratic constraints and legislative uncertainties continue to be obstacles to the full efficiency of foundations, which, despite their positive contributions, face significant challenges in an ever-changing landscape. Foundations are involved in a wide range of cultural activities: from the management of museums and theaters to the organization of events and the care of archives and libraries. In Piedmont, these structures are a key resource, with the number of people employed nearly doubling in the past decade.

Family spending and cultural participation in Italy in 2023

In 2023, average monthly household spending in Italy increased by 3.9 percent to 2,728 euros, but the increase was largely influenced by inflation, with a negative real change of -1.8 percent. Spending on culture, sports and recreation increased 10.1 percent, but when adjusted for inflation, the increase drops to 4 percent, still higher than overall spending. Despite the increases, cultural spending has not yet recovered to 2019 levels, remaining lower in real terms.

Regionally, households in the North and Center spend significantly more on culture than those in the South. In the Center, cultural spending increased by 15 percent over the previous year, while in the South the increase was smaller at 3.5 percent.

As for cultural participation, 35.2 percent of the population took part in cultural activities outside the home in 2023, an increase of 12 percent over 2022, returning to pre-pandemic levels. Visits to museums, concerts, theaters, and archaeological sites increased, with sectors such as theater and concerts seeing growths of more than 60 percent. In contrast, cinema continues to struggle, with attendance still 15 percent below 2019 levels.

Regionally, too, a clear difference emerges between the North and the South. Southern regions continue to experience significantly lower rates of cultural participation than those in the North. Despite these disparities, museums have seen a strong upswing in visitation, with major sites such as the Colosseum and Pompeii seeing significant increases. In particular, autonomous museums and archaeological parks, while accounting for only 10 percent of state institutions, welcome more than 70 percent of visitors and generate 82 percent of revenue.

Recovery and growth of international and cultural tourism in 2023

In 2023, international tourism experienced a strong recovery, with 1.3 billion global arrivals, recovering about 90% of pre-pandemic levels. Europe maintained the lead with 709 million arrivals, marking a 95 percent recovery from 2019. In Italy, tourist flows grew: 62 million Italian arrivals (+3%) and 64 million international tourists (+16.4%). Total presences increased, surpassing 2019 figures, and spending by foreign travelers reached 51 billion euros (+16% compared to 2022). Regions with the largest increases in spending include Lazio, Tuscany, Campania, Sardinia and Abruzzo. However, some regions such as Valle d’Aosta, Liguria and Piedmont have not yet recovered to 2019 levels. Cultural tourism, particularly in art cities, saw a significant increase, with 18.7 million foreigners (+34.5 percent) and spending 17.8 billion (+43.8 percent).

Overview of culture funding in Italy: recent trends and tendencies

In 2023 and 2024, the budget allocated to culture by the Ministry of Culture (MiC) declines slightly from previous years, although it maintains higher levels than pre-Covid. The reduction, between 3 percent and 7 percent, brings the MiC’s allocation to 3.8 billion euros in 2023 and 3.5 billion in 2024. Funds for entertainment and cinema are also declining: the National Fund for Live Performing Arts decreases by 6.5 percent, while the Cinema Fund drops by 6.7 percent.

Resources for culture in municipal governments, on the other hand, are growing, with a 13 percent increase in 2022 over the previous year, especially in the South and Islands. Compared to 2019, resources are up 16.7 percent. Provinces record a rise in cultural resources in 2022 (+26.3%), although still lower than in 2019.

For the regions, resources for culture are stable until 2021, with a slight increase in the forecast for 2023 and 2024, reaching about 1.3 billion euros. Private resources, such as the Art Bonus, continue to grow, with 900 million euros at the end of April 2024, of which 121.5 million were disbursed in 2023. Banking Foundations, in 2022, allocated 247 million euros to culture, mainly for artistic creation, asset preservation, and the enhancement of visual arts. As for private resources, the Art Bonus exceeded 900 million euros in the cumulative figure as of April 2024. Annual disbursements also show a positive trend: as of December 2023, total donations reached 121.5 million euros, registering growth over the same period last year.

“If the annual trend of Art Bonus donations has been almost stable in recent years-despite the socioeconomic context of great crisis due to pandemic, wars, energy crisis,inflation etc. - 2023 represents the year when the highest annual amount and number of disbursements was reached,” says Carolina Botti, Ales Director and Art Bonus contact person for the Ministry of Culture. “The number of interventions published on the Art Bonus portal of the Ministry of Culture was also the highest ever, more than 900: these excellent results testify to the level of use of the norm and the potential of the Art Bonus in the development of a cultural strategy aimed at stimulating a virtuous relationship of synergy between the public and private sectors for the protection and enhancement of our cultural heritage.”

Cultural employment

Employment in the cultural sector, which was drastically reduced during the pandemic, recovered strongly in 2022 (+5.7 percent compared to 2021) and in 2023 returned to 2019 levels (-0.1 percent). Between 2019 and 2021, the decline in cultural employment was more pronounced than in total employment (-6.7% vs. -2.4%), with the share falling from 3.6% to 3.4%, then rising again to 3.5% in 2022 and remaining stable in 2023. After a faster recovery in 2022, growth in cultural employment (+1.2%) in 2023 was lower than overall growth (+2.1%). The recovery concerns only those employed in cultural occupations within noncultural sectors, which grew by +7.7 percent over 2019 (+5.5 percent in the last year). In contrast, noncultural occupations within cultural sectors continue to lose employment (down 10.4 percent from 2019, with a decline of -6.2 percent in 2023 alone). Strictly speaking, cultural professions also show a decrease of -3.0%, despite recovering +8.2% in 2022 and +0.8% in the last year. Overall, the number of people employed in the cultural sectors is still below pre-pandemic levels (-6.3%). From a spatial perspective, the North still shows a significant reduction compared to 2019 (-7.9%), while in the Center (+8.6%) and the South (+12.6%), the recovery is more pronounced than in overall employment (+2.0% in the Center and +3.5% in the South).

Italian culture has now recovered from the pandemic and is growing. Federculture 2024 data

Warning: the translation into English of the original Italian article was created using automatic tools. We undertake to review all articles, but we do not guarantee the total absence of inaccuracies in the translation due to the program. You can find the original by clicking on the ITA button. If you find any mistake,please contact us.