Easter and spring breaks: 11 million ready to go

Uncertain weather and the geopolitical picture do not discourage the desire to leave for the spring holidays. Federturismo's latest forecasts indicate 11 million Italians close to departure with an increase in the average length of stay. "For the Easter period, there has been an increase in the average length of stay in hotels, which has risen from two to three nights, with a growth in bookings made well in advance, also by foreign customers," explains Marina Lalli, president of Federturismo Confindustria. "Eleven million Italians will set off to relax and enjoy food and wine and personalised experiences, with a strong choice of facilities offering wellness services.

The destinations range from the coastal resorts of Apulia and Sicily to the mountains. In cities of art such as Florence and Rome, overnight stays are on average +1.4% thanks to the influx of guests arriving from all over Europe and the USA. Rome is the first choice for French, Spanish and American travellers and the second most popular for Germans and British, who are focusing on Milan and the lakes as their first option. Naples, with one million tourists arriving from Easter week to May Day, is among the most popular cities for domestic and international travellers, especially Germans and Britons. In Venice, with an occupancy rate of over 70%, there will be no shortage of Germans, Austrians and French. In Liguria, hotels are almost sold out for Easter with an occupancy rate close to 90%. 900 thousand presences are expected and "in the event of favourable weather there is the possibility of breaking through the one million mark," says Luca Lombardi, Regional Councillor for Tourism.

Italians going abroad will choose, according to Federturismo data, the classic European capitals Paris, Barcelona, London and Amsterdam, which are always very attractive. Those who take advantage of the calendar for a longer holiday choose the Red Sea, which is always very popular for its convenience. On the long haul, there is no stopping the Italians' desire to go to America, particularly New York, the Arab Emirates and the Maldives, but at the top of preferences this year is Japan, which has generated considerable interest given that the Easter holidays coincide with the cherry blossom period in many parts of the country.

For the spring long weekends of 25 April and 1 May, domestic destinations are the preferred ones. This is the finding of the Telepass Observatory, a company of the Mundys Group, which commissioned Seed Digital, an agency specialising in digital marketing, to carry out an analysis of web searches in order to identify the search trends linked to the spring long weekends.

The comparison between the data collected in the two periods analysed (June 2023-March 2024 compared with June 2024-March 2025) highlights not only the marked propensity for planning on the part of Italian travellers (confirmed by a 7% increase in searches, which exceeded one million), but also a marked preference for domestic destinations (87% of searches) and considerable flexibility in travel modes. In the comparison between the two periods analysed, online searches related to spring bridges show a 7% increase, from 988 thousand to almost 1.1 million search engine queries. Searches are mainly focused on Italian destinations, which are the protagonists of 87% of online searches, followed by Spain (4%) and Egypt (2%).