Tourism, Italia confirms second place in Europe. But Italians travel less in the Peninsula

While waiting to see what impact the ongoing crisis in the Middle East and the Gulf countries will have on world tourism, Italy can look back with satisfaction on the 2025 results that confirm its second position in Europe in the attendance ranking. In 2024 our country had overtaken France and last year managed to retain the position. In the lead, currently unreachable, remains Spain. A result, as certified by Istat and Eurostat data, guaranteed by an Italian growth in total presences that is higher than the EU average (+2.3% against +2.2%). Italy also won the bronze medal for the number of foreign presences (17.6% of the EU total). And again: the growth of foreign presences in Italia is higher than the EU average (+4.3% against +3.4%).

But there are not only positive signs on the 2025 Italia tourism statistics: while presences are up on 2024 (+2.3%), arrivals are down (-0.9%). The domestic component is to blame because Italy's presences are stable but the arrivals are still falling: -3.5% compared to the previous twelve months.

In absolute numbers, admissions in Italia were 476.853 million, some 5 million more than those recorded by rival France. As mentioned, Spain remains first with numbers above the 500 million mark (513.577). The distance with Italia does not seem to be closeable at the moment. Also because Madrid continues to run: in 2025 it set a new historical record for international tourism. The Iberian country welcomed 96.77 million foreign tourists, 3.2% more than in 2024. Also record-breaking was the total expenditure of foreign visitors, which rose to EUR 134.712 billion, an increase of 6.8% year-on-year.