Italy is barely in the top 10 for Chinese tourists. Most destinations that are have escaped Italy’s fate. I’m not saying it wasn’t Chinese tourists and business people who infected Italy, but there is clearly something else going on. FWIW, the USA is the #9 top destination for Chinese tourists.
1. Hong Kong
2. Macau
3. Taiwan
4. Thailand
5. Japan
6. Vietnam
7. South Korea
8. Singapore
9. USA
10. Italy
It only takes one.
“Italy is barely in the top 10 for Chinese tourists.”
No surprise. Now that the theory of Chinese tourists is debunked, the FluBros will move on to something else.
Tuscany - Prato
‘Prato has evolved and grown in terms of population, but the majority… how can I say it… the majority it’s all Chinese. That ‘something’ that there was before isn’t there anymore, Prato’s traditions, the feasts… on the 15th of August we used to go to Feast of Santa Maria, we’d eat watermelons, you’d go there and see all the people from Prato… now what you see, it’s mostly managed by [the Chinese]….’
https://www.ecnmy.org/engage/prato-chinese-stuff-look-around/
from wiki:
Prato, Tuscany has the largest concentration of Chinese people in Italy and all of Europe. It has the second largest population of Chinese people overall in Italy after Milan.[2]...Most overseas Chinese come from the city of Wenzhou in the province of Zhejiang,
... Official statistics indicate there are at least 320,794 Chinese citizens in Italy, although these figures do not account for illegal immigration
—
prostitution and illegal workers:
Chinese police patrols turned into a one-way street:
For Italy, apparently, the €229bn that Chinese tourists spend abroad each year was a stronger pull.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/may/04/chinese-police-patrols-rome-collaboration-italy