A popular Italian city has seen a massive drop in hotel and Airbnb bookings, with one-in-two rooms being left vacant over the summer amid a wave of anti-tourism protests across Europe.
Florence, home to Michaelangelo's sculpture of David and the Duomo cathedral, has seen a year-on-year drop of room bookings since May and local tourism experts are expecting August to be another slow month.
Monica Rocchini, the president of a local hoteliers' association, told local media: 'We currently have a room occupancy rate of around 50%.'
She added that with so many rooms empty, going rates for these rooms are having to drop as well.
Rocchini said that June and July saw a 15-20% drop from last year, adding that much of this was caused by Donald Trump's announcement of tariffs which led to Americans, typically a high-spending cohort, to cancel their bookings.
