Bologna, tourism soars: record attendance and overnight stays (+14%). But wages are a concern

Bologna, June 23, 2025 - Widening gender pay gap , slowing economy, poor work with incomes that cannot keep up with inflation, the effects of wars on manufacturing, declining female employment and the housing emergency. This is the picture, certified by data from the Ires Observatory, created on behalf of the Cgil of Bologna , of the economy and work in the city and province.

Tourist boom in Bologna and, in the circle, Michele Bulgarelli (Cgil)

Three main points - for Michele Bulgarelli, number one of the Bologna Chamber of Labor - on which a leap is needed: the gender pay gap, poor work, tourism first and foremost , and the coming crisis (recent data from Bankitalia underlined the slowdown of the Emilia locomotive). The line, according to the union, is clear: "Wage redistribution at all levels as a tool for reducing inequalities and recomposing a precarious and fragmented world of work in contracts and subcontracts, a renewed season of the 1% social that commits the business system to supporting the welfare state at a metropolitan level by addressing the main emergencies of the territory, starting with housing , attention and union intervention in the growing sectors where exploitation, poor work and also the risk of illegality are concentrated, starting with tourism ", is the summary.

The metropolitan area closed 2024 with a stable outlook, with a variation in the added value produced of 0.8% compared to 2023. The sectors that are growing the most are agriculture and the services sector which, with a variation of 1.2%, contributes, in terms of consistency, more than the others to the overall variation. Manufacturing , in fact, is stuck at 0.2%, while construction is down by 0.6%. The manufacturing closure is mainly due to the reduction in exports of 3% compared to 2023, due to the further decline in exports to Germany.

In the face of a contracting economic context for Bologna, the tourism sector is bucking the trend, growing by 4.6 percent from 2023 to 2024. In fact, 2024 marks a new record in terms of presences and overnight stays. Driving the trend is Bologna with 69.8% of arrivals, which varies positively by 14% compared to 2023. But if tourism (and catering) are soaring, average wages are not doing the same, stable at 12,900 euros per year . “A fragmented and discontinuous job”, explains Gianluca De Angelis of Ires Emilia-Romagna who edited the report, for which “corrections are needed”, echoes Bulgarelli.

“If we look at private sector wages, a third of Bolognese people have an average annual income of less than 20 thousand euros. We are talking about 128 thousand people who struggle to make it to the end of the month”, is the summary of the CGIL secretary. He relaunches the need to continue the work of the Pact for Work and Climate and, at a metropolitan level, asks to “address poor work, especially in tourism, as the issue of logistics has been addressed, with the ethical logistics charter, and that of riders”. On the lack of manpower complained about by Federalberghi and industry insiders and the lack of willingness to work on weekends of tourism personnel, especially young people, he replies: “ There is a change in expectations that, at times, does not only concern the economic component, but the need to reconcile life and work times”. De Angelis agrees: “It is necessary for those who are employed to know what time their shift ends, we need well-defined boundaries”.

Looking at the numbers, luxury hotel facilities (4 and 5 stars) are holding up, while demand for accommodation managed in an entrepreneurial form is growing with increases of up to 44.4% in the case of arrivals compared to 2023, which become +235.8% compared to 2019. Tourist demand (+60%) and supply (+25%) are growing in the so-called 'other private accommodations'. Hence, the usual consequences on the topic of living.

For both sales and rentals, Ires records a strong growth in prices, which in the entire Bologna area range from +23.9% of the minimum rent compared to 2021 and +4% of the price per square meter. The territorial variations clearly show how in the last year the most significant fluctuations concern the areas outside the capital city, with the peak of +63% in the Bologna Apennines. Overall, it can be said that the solutions that were cheaper up until 2021 and those that probably attracted demand with a limited budget are the ones that are growing the most in 2023.

The economic slowdown also generates a contraction in the employment rate, which fell to 71.9%, 1.5 points less than in 2023, with a decline entirely attributable to the female component. The male employment rate , in fact, grows by 0.4 points, rising to 77.9%, while the female one decreases by 3.4 points compared to 2023, settling at 66%. Why? Because of the strong contraction detected in the sectors with a greater concentration of women, such as commercial services, personal services and businesses, where people are more exposed to wage poverty. The decrease in the number of employed women largely results in a real exit from the labor market, with a significant increase in the number of inactive people because they are discouraged from looking for work. Inactive women grow by 7.3% in one year, inactive women by 1.3%. The fact that Bologna's economy has slowed down significantly during 2024 is shown by the increase in the use of redundancy payments (+71% in 2024 compared to 2023, in the metropolitan area alone), and the data on employment and the number of hires say so. "The Observatory tells us that even in Bologna social fractures are amplifying, that the impoverishment of large groups of workers and working classes is certified by incomes that do not keep pace with inflation and that constitutional rights, such as housing and healthcare, are no longer guaranteed to everyone", concludes Bulgarelli

The CGIL secretary, at the end, also mentions the case of the procession of 10 thousand workers the other day on the ring road . “There is nothing new about the complaints due to the security decree. What worries me is that the government's response is repression and penal populism ,” he says in reference to the crime of 'road block' for which one risks up to 2 years of imprisonment.