Beach resorts in Italy are giving people refunds in bad weather

Two beaches in the northern Italian resort town of Jesolo are offering refunds to holiday-makers if it rains during their visit. Photo / iStock

It's called "abbronzati o rimborsati" - meaning "get a tan or get your money back".

And it's precisely how beach resorts in Italy's northwest are trying to keeping tourists happy during a miserable start to the European summer.

Two beaches in the seaside town of Jesolo, north of Venice, have been so desperate to attract visitors they launched a new deal on Friday that offered guests a refund if it rained during their stay.

A representative from the local tourist board told Italy's La Nuova Venezia the deal was available to anyone who spent their summer holiday in Jesolo.

"We're trying to make Jesolo a seaside destination that's desirable to tourists from Italy and Europe," the representative said.

Under the deal, tourists who paid one euro ($1.60) extra when they rented a sun lounger could get a full refund if their day was ruined by rain - but crucially, that only applied if there was more than 3mm of rain measured between 11am and 5pm.

Nearby Venice attracts more than 20 million visitors each year, making it one of Italy's top tourist drawcards.

But Jesolo has suffered from particularly bad weather in June, including a tornado that struck a beach earlier this month, The Local reported.

The wind, rain and general dreariness has been blamed for an 18 per cent drop in tourist numbers this month, which La Nuova Venezia declared was "the worst June of the past 20 years".

Popular with beach-seeking holiday-makers and home to Italian football league team AC Jesolo, the town hit global headlines in 2010 when an Austrian tourist was fined $1195 by local authorities for buying a fake Louis Vuitton purse from a street seller.

The 65-year-old woman became the first tourist to be issued the hefty fine after the local council began a crackdown on black market trading.