14-11-2013

Almawave: presents “#italianelmondo”, a snapshot of Italy in 140 characters

14/11/2013

How much is Italy being talked about worldwide and for what reasons?
In October a total of 7.8 million tweets were created in 6 different languages: English, French, German, Spanish, Portuguese and Italian.
Sport was by far the most tweeted-about topic (40% of all tweets), followed by tourism and politics.

Milan, 15 November 2013 – Twitter users talk about Italy quite often and the most tweeted-about topics are sport (40%), followed by tourism (15%), politics (8%), events (6%), the economy (6%), social issues (5%), the media (4%) and others more.

The “#italianelmondo” tweet survey by Almawave, presented today at the EMC Forum 2013, paints a picture of Italy based on the study of about 7.8 million tweets in 6 languages (English, French, German, Spanish, Portuguese and Italian), analyzed with the use of statistical algorithms. The constant round the clock monitoring of all the tweets about Italy created all around the world, between 24 September and 28 October 2013, grouped into 1,300 concepts and 14 categories. Regarding the survey,

English is the most tweeted language (42% of all tweets), followed by Italian (32%), Spanish (18%), French (5%), Portuguese (2%), while tweets in German account for only 1% of the surveyed tweets.

The tweets by German tweeters about Italy stand out for their different approach, with tourism at the top (25% of all tweets in German) followed by politics (21%), while the preferred topic in all the other languages is sport (44% of tweets in English and 48% in French).

Generally speaking, tourism is one of the key topics of discussion, primarily in connection with holidays & travel (42% of tourism tweets), while 25% are dedicated to monuments and tourist attractions in the major art destinations, 22% to the landscape and tourism destinations and 11% to hotels and accommodation.

The Colosseum ranks first as the most tweeted-about monument, and, strangely enough, Milan Cathedral beats St. Peter's.

The Colosseum is the most tweeted-about monument (30%), followed by the Pantheon and, surprisingly, not St. Peter's (which ranks fourth) but Milan Cathedral.

The Maxxi and Macro Museums beat the Vatican Museums.

Other Roman museums rank among the top 5 most tweeted museums, with a strong prevalence of modern over ancient art: the Maxxi and Macro museums in Rome top the league table, followed by the Uffizi in Florence, the Capitoline Museums and the Vatican Museums.

What about the sea? Capri tops the list

The most preferred seaside locations are in the south and the list is topped by Capri (51%), followed by the Amalfi Coastline (14%) and Salento (7%).

The north, however, gets its payback with the beauty of its lakes, with the Lake of Como first (65%), followed by Lake Garda (35%), and, of course, its mountains, with the Alps, which are mentioned in 57% of all tweets on the subject and followed, at a distance, by Mount Etna (17%).

Lazio and Lombardia are the top regions

The most tweeted-about region is Lazio (24.4% of all tweets), mainly thanks to the tweets about Rome and its monuments and museums, followed by Lombardy (16.7%, thanks to the monuments of Milan, but also to the importance of the Expo 2015), Tuscany (13.3%, with Florence and the region's food & wine routes), Veneto (10.7%) and Sicily (10%).

Lucca and Assisi among the most popular cities

The most popular Italian art cities include some surprises: behind Rome (mentioned in 35% tweets) and Milan (21%), which rank first and second, we find Assisi and Lucca, respectively third and fourth, before even Venice and Florence. Assisi was undoubtedly favored by the visit by Pope Francis on 4 October. Regarding Lucca, the driving reason was probably the forthcoming Comics and Games event, which goes to show that the important events are a valid tool for turning the spotlight on one or another tourism destination.

Events: the spotlight is on the Expo

Events have the power to create a buzz about certain key topics for Italy (fashion, food, cinema..). Alongside the major events with a huge media coverage, such as the Film Festival and Fashion Week, other events emerge such as Eurochocolate, Romics in Rome, Comics in Lucca and the One Direction concerts. People are also starting to tweet about the Expo 2015: especially among the Spanish-language tweeters, with tweets regarding the announcement that Disney Italia will design the 2015 Expo mascot. In Portuguese, Milan is tweeted about as the location for the Universal Exposition. The capital of Lombardy is increasingly tweeted about not just with regard to fashion, but art and culture as well.

Grievances: card cloning, online bookings, run-down monuments and high prices

Social network users are always ready to exchange opinions about shortcomings and weak spots as well. The analysis of the sample of tweets highlights that several recurrent topics concern problems with credit card cloning, as well as difficulties in booking hotels online. Italian monuments, especially the ancient Roman ones, are often defined as run-down, while several users (especially those tweeting in Spanish) complain about the high prices.

The most widely known wine is Chianti, which "doubles" all other wines & alcoholic beverages

The tweets have also made it possible to chart the top ten of Italian food & wine products. Regarding alcoholic beverages, Chianti is top of the league table with 18% of tweets, “doubling” various competitors, in ranking order Montepulciano (9%), Barbera (8%), Prosecco (8%), Asti (8%) and at a distance from the renowned Brunello (7%), which is followed by Barolo, Grappa, Peroni beer and Montalcino.

It's not just about pizza, truffles too are popular

Regarding food products, the classical foreign stereotypes of Italian cooking are confirmed, such as pizza (25%), pasta (18%) and coffee (11%), although niche products such as truffles are also tweeted about (2%), achieving the same ranking as the very popular Nutella (2%). Significant rankings also for chocolate (5%), bread (5%), cheese (4%), ice cream (4%) and fish (3%).

Sport

With regard to sport, soccer tops the list, especially thanks to the Garcia's Roma. Sport, however, is not just soccer, with other heavily tweeted sports such as cycling, thanks to the championships in Tuscany, and Eurovolley following the Italian team's silver medal.

Politics

In politics, the spotlight is on Berlusconi. Other hot topics are the ongoing political instability and the Italian Government's confidence vote at the Senate in early October. Many Italian language tweets are about Renzi, unlike the other languages. There is also a significant focus on tax-related issues.

The economy

Regarding the economy, the crisis is the hottest topic, due to the repercussions of the Italian situation on the whole Eurozone. Other hot topics include the soaring cost of living and high taxation, which holds back consumption. Among the business issues, besides the recent cases of Telecom and Alitalia, there is an interesting buzz for Eataly, which promotes Italian quality food products abroad.

“Big Data analyses are a valid and precious tool for photographing the present” - said Valeria Sandei, CEO of Almawave – “they tell us about a real world on the move, offering unexpected keys to interpretation and enabling useful forecasts for interpreting the future and expectations. The solutions developed by us at Almawave analyze and understand ever-increasing volumes of very varied data in real time. And it is precisely this variety of sources that determines the value of the service. The #italianelmondo survey proves how crucial the Big Data and Advanced Analytics offering is to understand reality and transform business, enhancing the competitive edge of both private enterprises and government”.