A study published by the Ente Bilaterale Turismo della regione Lazio (EBTL) in June says that tourism in the city of Rome in the first five months of 2008 has fallen by 2.7 per cent with respect to the same period in 2007. The study measures tourism in terms of the number of nights tourists spend in hotels and found a discrepancy of around 200,000 nights between the first five months of 2007 and the same period in 2008.

EBTL president Giancarlo Mulas said that tourism over the summer months is likely to decline even more, by up to 8 per cent. Informal reports by local hoteliers, however, estimate an even greater decrease of around 15 per cent.

This year