Tourist tax: municipal revenue up 13 per cent in the first six months of 2026
According to the JFC National Observatory, local authority revenue exceeded 438 million euros in the first six months of 2026
The upward trend in tourist tax revenue shows no sign of abating. According to the JFC National Observatory, in the first six months of 2026, local authorities’ takings exceeded €438 million, up 13 per cent on the same period in 2025 and 30 per cent on 2024.
It is not only the rise in visitor numbers that is driving the increase in revenue from the tax paid by tourists for each night spent in cities of art and holiday resorts: Istat figures for the first three months of this year (the half-yearly figures have not yet been published) show a 4.2 per cent rise in arrivals and a 7.5 per cent rise in overnight stays. However, the trend in revenue is also driven by the gradual expansion of the number of local authorities introducing the tax and by the increase in rates in those where it was already in place.
The JFC Observatory on tourist tax estimates that, in 2026, revenue will reach 1,308 million euros, compared with 1,150 million in 2025 (revenue in the second half of the year exceeds that of the first half because it includes the summer months – except June – and Christmas).
Increasingly widespread use
Since 2011, the first year in which local authorities were able to introduce the tax, the number of local authorities that have adopted it has risen steadily, from an initial 13 to 1,389 in 2025 (in Rome, the tourist levy already existed under a specific law, Decree-Law 78/2010). In 2026, according to the Observatory, the figure will reach 1,411 local authorities. As for increases in the rates, 53 local authorities have already raised their 2026 rates.
Geographical distribution
A quarter of the national revenue goes to the City of Rome. In the first six months of 2026, the capital earned 110.6 million from the tourist tax, 2.4 per cent more than in 2025. However, it is Milan, which this year hosted the Milan-Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics, is the city where revenue has risen the most, climbing from 35.5 million in 2024 to 49 million in 2025 and 65.8 million in 2026 – an increase of 85.1 per cent over three years.
