Tourism in Italy hit a record high last year and foreigners made up the majority for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic, national statistic bureau ISTAT said this week.
Registered arrivals in accommodation such as hotels rose a yearly 13.4% to more than 134 million in 2023, the highest ever figure. The total number of nights spent in hotels and other similar facilities increased almost 10% to 451 million.
After a period when domestic tourism predominated, starting from the pandemic in 2020, foreign stays again accounted for the majority.
Italy, long a favoured destination for tourists from around the world, is seeking to regulate the number of visitors to some of its main attractions at peak times.
Venice is charging an entry fee of 5 euros ($5.43) for day trippers during the busiest periods and a number of other destinations have taken steps to avoid being overrun by tourists.
Lazio and Lombardy were the regions which registered the strongest year-on-year growth in tourism, due to a sustained rise of numbers in Rome and Milan, ISTAT said.
The foreign presence was stronger in the north-east of Italy, home to cities such as Venice, and weaker in the south of the country.
Earlier, a survey by Florence’s Tourism Study Centre (Centro Studi Turistici) for the Assoturismo Confesercenti association, came to the same conclusion prediciting that Italy’s tourism sector is set to have a bumper summer, with visitors forecast to have 216 million overnight stays at official accommodation facilities between June and August, an increase of 1.5% on last summer
The report said foreign visitors will account for 105 million of those overnight stays, a rise of 2.5% on last year.
It added the overnight stays in Italy were up by 3.8% in the first five months of 2024 compared to the same period last year.
