A study of eight million tweets showed what foreigners are talking about when it comes to Italy. From tourism to politics.
Balotelli (Italian footballer - approx. the author), Capri island, Berlusconi and pizza: such Italy is seen by foreigners in a line of 140 characters. On Twitter, the world talks about Italy, and the most talked about topic is sports (40% of utterances), followed by tourism (15%) and politics (8%). These conclusions were reached by specialists at Almawave (an Italian innovative consulting company providing services in the field of marketing and business analysis), having conducted a study based on the Italia nel mondo project and having studied about 7.8 million citations in October in English, French, German, Spanish, Portuguese and Italian.
There were some surprises. For example, Lucca became the city most often mentioned in quotes, thanks to the festival of cartoons. Queen of cooking recognized pizza (finally "orphaned" from the mafia and mandolin). Coffee, nutella, and truffles also snatched their bit of digital fame. As for wine, the number of “tweets” about Chianti is at least twice the number of references to any other alcoholic beverages. Among the attractions, the Colosseum leads, and the Duomo of Milan is ahead of St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican. Speaking of politics, foreigners use only two words: Silvio and Berlusconi. In Italy itself, of course, Matteo Renzi is raging (a popular Italian politician, the mayor of Florence - approx. the author), however, apparently, his fame did not cross the Alps, not to mention the ocean.
Another hot topic of discussion among Italians is the specter of a government crisis in the country, as well as the confidence placed in Parliament by Prime Minister Enrico Letta in October.
The largest number of quotes about Italy is recorded in English (42% of the total), followed by Italian (32%), Spanish (18%), French (5%), Portuguese (2%), while discussions in German found only in 1% of cases. And then we are talking about the "scolding" arranged by Angela Merkel regarding spending budget funds, or about the Chancellor's Easter holidays on Ischia Island. That is, in Germany, via Twitter, they discuss either Italian tourism (25% of all statements in German) or Italian politics (21%).
In social networks, foreigners are also actively discussing what does NOT work in Italy. An analysis of Twitter showed that tourists in Italy regularly face the problem of cloning credit cards, as well as the difficulty in booking hotels online.
Monuments and sights - especially Roman ones - are often described by the word "collapsing," but the Spanish-speaking population is still more concerned about rising prices. If we talk about sports, then the main topic of discussion is, of course, football.
"The study used Big Data analysis - a series of valuable and effective tools and techniques that allow you to make a" cast "of the moment," explains Valeria Sandei, director of Almawave. Of course, on the basis of Twitter alone it is impossible to judge a population.
But social networks "reflect the world in reality and in motion, offer keys for unexpected ideas and allow you to make predictions for the future."
