ARRIVALS MATTER. BUT RETURNS MATTER EVEN MORE

Not All Visitors Experience the City in the Same Way

by Simone Vesentini

From behind the counter of my osteria, I see two different Veronas every day.

There are those who arrive for the first time, photograph the Arena, cross Piazza delle Erbe, look for Juliet, grab something to eat and leave again a few hours later.

Then there are those who come from the surrounding province, from Lake Garda, Vicenza, Brescia or Mantua. They already know Verona. They come for a stroll, some shopping, an aperitivo, dinner or a show. Above all, they come back.

Both are valuable visitors, but they have different effects on the city’s economy.

The day-tripper concentrates both time and spending along a handful of well-trodden routes and at the city’s best-known attractions.

The local visitor, by contrast, precisely because they return more frequently, gradually gets to know the city properly. They wander down side streets, step into smaller shops, discover local craftsmen and independent businesses, and seek out restaurants and bars beyond the main shopping thoroughfares.

That frequency creates a different kind of value. They may not necessarily spend more on any single day, but they may return 10 or 20 times over the course of a year. And with every visit, they expand the geography of their Verona.

In 2025, the province recorded almost 20 million overnight stays, nearly 80 per cent of them by foreign visitors. Yet according to Mastercard’s analysis of tourist spending in the city, it is Lombardy residents who rank first among Italian visitors for average spending in Verona.

Verona does not have to choose between the international tourist and the visitor from nearby. It needs both.

The first takes Verona out into the world.

The second helps keep the city’s everyday social, commercial and artisanal fabric alive.