The Jubilee’s financial results: foreign pilgrims spent 1.6 billion euros
According to data from the Bank of Italy, there were around 1.4 million ‘romei’, with Americans and Spaniards leading the way
Key points
‘Those who go to serve the Most High (...) are called “romei” because they go to Rome,’ wrote Dante in Vita nova. According to figures from the Bank of Italia, the number of ‘romei’ who travelled from abroad and arrived in the capital to take part in last year’s Jubilee stood at around 1.4 million.
According to the 2025 edition of the Report on International Tourism, foreign pilgrims (mostly Americans and Spaniards) accounted for expenditure of 1.6 billion euros: this accounts for 3 per cent of the total, but more importantly, it represents almost two-thirds of the growth in overall expenditure compared with the previous year.
Religious reasons account for only a third of travellers
In fact, just under a third of travellers cited “religious reasons and pilgrimage” as the main reason for their trip, whilst for over half it was “holidays and leisure”. “Arrivals,” reports Bankitalia, “were distributed throughout the year in a manner relatively similar to the usual seasonal pattern of international tourist flows, peaking during the summer months.”
Americans and Spaniards in the lead
Foreign travellers who came to Italia for the Jubilee of Hope proclaimed by Pope Francis were mainly from countries with large Catholic populations: in particular the United States (17.1 per cent of the total) and Spain (11 per cent), followed by Poland, the United Kingdom and France.
Destination: Rome
The main destination for over 90 per cent of tourist flows linked to the Holy Year (the second of the new millennium following the Great Jubilee of 2000) was, of course, Rome. This influx contributed to the strong growth in spending by foreign tourists in Lazio: +19.2% in 2025, compared with an average growth rate of 2.1 per cent in other regions. However, around half of these tourists also visited other Italian towns and cities.
