Investor Visa Italy Investor Visa Italy / 3

NEWS A dynamic new market: Italy innovative startups are more than 10,000 Italian hotel real estate market is one of the most attractive in Europe to foreign investors Italian culture is the core of the country’s economy by Edoardo Bonatti by Edoardo Bonatti by Edoardo Bonatti s it was expected, Italian startups are constantly improving their numbers and their contribution to the Italian economy as a whole. The last quarterly report on the subject, a joint effort between the Ministry of Economic Development and Unioncamere, shows that innovative startups in Italy are now exactly 10,075, as 31 March 2019. taly is among the most attractive European countries for hotel real estate investment. Rome takes the third place, behind Spain and Germany, in terms of market attractiveness in Tranio’s overview of European hospitality real estate market, presented during the 22nd edition of the International Hotel Investment Forum (IHIF). talian culture is not just a world-renowned brand or an invaluable immaterial heritage, but also a core component of the country’s economy. Symbola Foundation and Unioncamere underlined this oft-forgotten fact during the presentation of the report on the economic importance of the Italian cultural industry that took place on the 7 March. A These usually young companies are now accounting for almost 3% of all capital companies registered in the last ﬁve years and still active. When looking at the ﬁelds in which these companies operate the numbers are not surprising: 72.6% of innovative startups provide services to other companies, especially IT consulting and R&D activities, 18.4% operate in the manufacturing sector, while 3.6% operate in commerce. Innovative startups are also characterized by a strong youth presence among their directive bodies, as 18.8% of them are prevalently staffed by under-35 members, and at least 42.9% of them has at least one under- 35 associate. At the end of 2018, 4,271 innovative startup companies had at least one employee, an increase of 305 units more over the previous six months, amounting to 42.4% of the total and marking a 2% growth over the same period. At the end of March 2019, innovative startups as a whole now have 13,298 employees and 44,732 partners, the latter showing a 17.9% increase over the previous quarter. It is staggering to see how the total amount of partners and employees grew during 2018, an almost 20% increase. Startups budgets are still not fully available as 43% of them either opened in 2018 or were not included in the database. Numbers show a seemingly downward trend on average revenue but this does not mean that the sector is having trouble. As it stands startups are no longer considered as such when older than ﬁve years or with yearly revenue of more than ﬁve million euros. Given these parameters, bigger, older and more successful companies are exiting the picture and the newly incorporated ones are too small to offset their departure. Thus, mature Italian startups can indeed be considered proﬁtable and future-proof while their younger brothers are in need of capitals to further their development. I Most of the survey participants hailed from European countries such as the UK (29), Germany (19) and Spain (16); however, Russian, Saudi and Emirati investors were also well represented. According to previous joint research conducted by Tranio and MR&H (Mediterranean Resort and Hotel Real Estate Forum), the Mediterranean region is quite popular among American, Russian and Chinese investors. Russian entrepreneurs showed a keen interest in European hotel real estate in both surveys. Italy also ranked as the third most attractive countries for investments overall. Investors’ spirits are high, as the majority of those who participated in the survey indicated that they are willing to believe in European real estate and thus more likely to buy than to sell in 2019. There is, nonetheless, a lack of good offers available on the market while as Marina Filichkina, Tranio’s Head of Sales, said many investors are searching every day for hotels to purchase and then rent. Survey participants showed more interest in higher value real estate purchases, as 71% of revealed that their average investment budget is over ten million euros; 23% of the sample indicated that their budget is in the one million to ten million range. Investments made in Italy are usually held for longer periods, as well as those made in Germany and Spain, thus favouring a long-term investment strategy, usually over ten years. Another study, Deloitte’s 2018 European hotel investment survey, revealed that 30% of respondents indicated a hold period of 5-10 years and 40% more claimed that they would be looking to hold for 10+ years. To all non-EU entrepreneurs looking to invest in the Italian hotel and hospitality market InvestorVisa.it offers a vast array of real estate opportunities in the most exclusive Italian tourist destination such as Viareggio, Pisa, Livorno, Monferrato hills and Elba Island. I The so-called “Cultural and Creative Production System”, an expression which includes enterprises, public administrations, and non-proﬁt organizations actively working in Italy, generated a 92 billion euros revenue in 2017. When taking into account the economic value created by the satellite activities tied to the cultural sector the revenue reaches a staggering amount: 255.5 billion, equivalent to 16.6% of the national GDP. Such a result means that the sector grew by 2% over the previous year. Employment beneﬁts greatly from this state of affairs: in the expanded culture sector, one and a half million people work, accounting for 6.1% of the total employment in Italy. According to the report, Lombardy is the leading Italian region as far culture enterprises are concerned counting on 350 thousand employees and producing a value-added total of 24 billion euros. The region is the national leader in terms of value added in various key sectors: architecture and design (2.6 billion); communication (2); publishing (3.9); software (3.4); art (1.8). Lombardy is also the leading region in Italy for culture-related tourism income with 3.9 billion euros. During the presentation, Ermete Realacci, president of the Symbola Foundation deﬁned culture and creativity as the cornerstone of all Italian productive sectors. Realacci quoted a University of Pennsylvania-US News magazine joint survey where Italy placed ﬁrst for its worldwide cultural inﬂuence. He also praised the “Italian characteristic intertwine between culture and manufacturing, social cohesion and innovation, competitiveness and sustainability, which represents a legacy of the past but also a key to the future”. Thanks to the new Italian visa for investors and patrons, non-EU entrepreneurs can easily become a part of the Italian culture industry, among many others. 5

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