Italian domestic tourism: flat nights, 3.5% fewer arrivals in 2025, and almost none of the growth in Jan-Aug 2026

What "domestic tourism" means in the official counts

Three different official counts describe Italians on holiday, and each measures something else.

The first is ISTAT's survey of tourist accommodation. It records arrivals and nights in hotels and other registered accommodation, split by where the guest lives. "Residents" means people who live in Italy, whatever their passport. An Italian citizen living in London counts as a non-resident. A Romanian national living in Turin counts as a resident. This is the series behind the 0.0% and the -3.5%. It does not see nights spent with friends and relatives or in a family's own second home.

The second is Eurostat's version of the same data, under dataset codes tour_occ_ninat (annual) and tour_occ_nim (monthly). ISTAT supplies the figures, so the two should match. They do not always, as the first quarter of 2026 shows below.

The third is ISTAT's household survey of trips, published as Viaggi e vacanze in Italia e all'estero. It counts trips by residents with at least one overnight stay, wherever they slept and wherever they went, including abroad. Its latest headline report covers 2023 and was published in April 2024. It recorded 52.1 million trips, 79% of them within Italy. ISTAT released microdata for 2014 to 2025 on 15 October 2026 but no headline report for 2024 or 2025.

The Bank of Italy adds a fourth view. Its international tourism survey measures cross-border trips and spending, so it covers Italians abroad and foreigners in Italy. It has no domestic count. None of these four can be added to another.

2025 on the old basis: fewer stays, the same nights

ISTAT published four quarterly flashes for 2025, all on the old basis, which excludes non-business private rentals. The fourth-quarter release states this exclusion in its methodological note. Within that series, 2025 can be compared with 2024.

Resident arrivals fell in every quarter: -2.2% in the first, -0.9% in the second, -4.1% in the third and -1.9% in the fourth. Resident nights moved in both directions: -1.4%, +3.0%, -0.3% and +0.1%. The full year closed at -3.5% for arrivals and 0.0% for nights. ISTAT rounds to one decimal place, so 0.0% means a change of less than 0.05% either way, or roughly 100,000 nights out of more than 200 million.

Non-residents grew in every quarter. Their arrivals rose 1.4% over the year and their nights 4.3%. Total nights rose 2.3% and total arrivals fell 0.9%. Virtually all of the 2025 increase in nights on the old basis came from foreign guests.

The third quarter carries the most weight because summer is when residents travel most. Between July and September 2025, ISTAT counted 22,475,150 resident arrivals (-4.1%) and 100,980,607 resident nights (-0.3%). That is an average of about 4.5 nights per resident stay, against 2.5 nights in the fourth quarter, when ISTAT counted 12,338,668 arrivals and 30,834,579 nights (our calculations from those figures). The summer stays are long and they did not get shorter. There were simply fewer of them.

On ISTAT's annual figures for 2024, residents spent 212,209,602 nights in registered accommodation, 0.4% fewer than in 2023 and 45.5% of all nights. A flat 2025 leaves the old-basis figure at about 212.2 million (our inference from the 0.0% change; ISTAT has not published an absolute 2025 resident total on the old basis). ISTAT's chart of the series puts 2019 at about 216.1 million. On that chart-read value, resident nights in 2025 were roughly 2% below their pre-pandemic level, while non-resident nights were about 20% above theirs (both our calculations on rounded inputs). The national picture of recovery and records rests on foreign demand. Our comparison of Italy and Spain shows how much the headline ranking depends on which count is used.

Where resident tourism matters most is uneven. In 2024 Emilia-Romagna had 28.6 million resident nights, 70% of its total, on ISTAT's regional table. Marche (82%), Abruzzo (85%) and Calabria (80%) depend on residents even more (shares are our calculation from ISTAT's regional night counts). Veneto is the opposite case: 21.7 million resident nights, but 70.5% of its nights are foreign. A flat domestic market is a small story in Venice and a large one on the Adriatic coast. ISTAT has not published a 2025 regional resident split on either basis.

The 2025 break: why 233.8 million is not growth

From 2025, ISTAT includes nights in private homes let to tourists without a business structure. Our article on Italy's rental code and key-box rules covers the rules these lets now operate under. In ISTAT's data story on tourism of 17 July 2026, Italy's 2025 total is over 535 million nights with those homes included and 481 million without them.

Eurostat's tour_occ_ninat dataset, updated on 12 October 2026, splits the new total into 233.8 million resident nights and 301.6 million non-resident nights, for 535,463,245 in all. The same dataset still shows 2024 on the old basis, at 466,158,045, with no flag marking the break. ISTAT has published only a partial restatement of 2024: "over 505 million" nights including private lets, with coverage in 92 of Italy's 107 provinces and no resident split. No one has published a resident figure for 2024 on the new basis, or for 2019.

That leaves two valid resident figures for 2025, one on each basis. On the old basis it is about 212.2 million (our inference). On the new basis it is 233.8 million (Eurostat). Their difference, about 21.6 million nights, is the order of magnitude of resident nights in non-business private lets. The equivalent gap for non-residents is about 37 million (our calculation from the 4.3% old-basis rise on 2024's 253.9 million). On those estimates, residents account for roughly 37% of the nights the new basis adds, below their 44% to 45% share of the old count. We treat this split as approximate. ISTAT's own "without rentals" figure of 481 million sits about 4 million above the 476.9 million Eurostat first published for 2025, and we have not found the reason.

The practical rule is short. Any statement that Italian domestic tourism grew by about 10% in 2025 compares two different things. The same caution applies to regions and source markets. Our earlier articles found the break behind growth claims for Sardinia, Tuscany and several foreign markets, including the German market.

2026 on the new basis: the foreign surge and a flat home market

From January 2026 both years in each comparison include private lets, so changes are like for like again. Eurostat's monthly dataset tour_occ_nim, updated on 30 October 2026 and covering January to August, is the most complete like-for-like view. We checked the figures below against the dataset on 4 November 2026.

Between January and August, resident nights rose from 179,673,569 in 2025 to 179,788,648 in 2026. That is 115,079 more nights, or +0.06%. Foreign nights rose by 11,244,441, or 5.19%. Total nights rose by 11,359,520, or 2.87%. On our calculation, residents supplied about 1% of the extra nights and foreign guests about 99%.

The monthly resident figures swing widely around that flat total. January fell 4.08%, February rose 0.09%, March rose 1.14% and April fell 0.78%. May jumped 6.36% and June rose 2.38%. July fell 3.08% and August rose 0.33%. Easter fell on 5 April in 2026 and on 20 April in 2025, which moves some nights between March, April and May. The July fall is the largest drop in a summer month. Foreign nights rose in six of the eight months, falling only in January and June.

ISTAT's quarterly releases tell a warmer story for the first half. Its second-quarter flash, published on 14 September 2026, counted 56,746,635 resident nights between April and June (+2.7%) and 19,674,331 resident arrivals (-3.0%). Foreign nights rose 4.6% to 91,127,005, and total nights rose 3.9% to 147,873,640. The average resident stay was 2.88 nights against 3.34 for foreign guests. Resident stays fell again and each one lasted longer, as in 2025.

The first quarter is contested. ISTAT's release of 26 May 2026 reported resident nights up 2.2%, foreign nights up 12.3% and the total up 7.5%. Eurostat holds the same 2026 level, 71,634,146 nights in total and 32,496,681 resident nights, but against a higher 2025 base. On Eurostat's figures resident nights fell from 32,828,559 to 32,496,681, about -1.0% (our calculation), and the total rose 1.65% and foreign nights 3.96%. We favour the Eurostat figures because ISTAT's own later cumulative figure for January to July, +2.7% for all guests, matches Eurostat's +2.72% (our calculation) and only fits the Eurostat base. The second quarter matches in both sources.

The ISTAT third quarter is due on 23 November 2026. Eurostat's September data are expected around the same time.

Italians abroad: more trips, fewer nights, more euros

The Bank of Italy's international tourism survey for 2025, published on 26 June 2026, counts trips by Italian residents across the border. Italians spent €34.1 billion abroad, 3.2% more than in 2024 and 6.2% more in real terms. The bank links the gap between those two figures to the stronger euro, which made trips outside the euro area cheaper.

The trip counts move in the same direction as at home. Italian residents made 66.4 million trips abroad, up 4.2%, and 38.4 million of them involved at least one night away, up 10.4%. They spent 274.6 million nights abroad, down 3.5%. The average overnight trip fell from 8.2 nights to 7.1. Spending per night rose from €111.2 to €119.2. Holidays accounted for €18.3 billion, up 17.9%, while business travel fell 19.3% to €7.1 billion. Spain was the first destination by spending, at €3.9 billion.

The two series are not comparable. One counts border-crossing trips in a survey and includes same-day visitors. The other counts check-ins at registered accommodation in Italy. Read side by side, they point the same way on frequency and opposite ways on length. Italians made more overnight trips abroad, each shorter than before, and fewer stays in Italian accommodation, each slightly longer. Nothing in the data shows that a trip to Spain replaced a week in Rimini. Foreigners spent €56.7 billion in Italy in 2025, and the travel surplus reached €22.7 billion.

The monthly follow-up points to slower outbound growth in 2026. In its July 2026 commentary, updated on 13 October, the Bank of Italy estimated Italians' spending abroad at about €3.6 billion in July, 1.5% more than a year earlier, and 2.1% higher on average for May to July.

What the accommodation data cannot see

The accommodation series counts only paid stays in registered places. Much of Italian domestic holidaying happens elsewhere. In Federalberghi's survey for summer 2026, 28.6% of travellers said they would stay with relatives or friends and 11.9% in their own home, against 30.6% in hotels or holiday villages. Those shares come from a survey with no published sample, but they show how much of the domestic market sits outside the official night counts.

ISTAT's household survey does capture those trips, and it tells a darker story than the accommodation data. Its 2023 report counted 52.1 million overnight trips by residents, stable on 2022 and 27% below 2019. Trips within Italy were 24% below 2019 and trips abroad 35.6% below. In summer 2023, 31.5% of residents took at least one holiday of four nights or more, against 35.8% in 2022 and 37.8% in 2019.

ISTAT's statistical yearbook for 2025 gives 49.29 million trips for 2024, 30.8% below 2019, and calls the year stable. Set against the 2023 report's 52.1 million, that would be a fall of about 5% (our arithmetic), which suggests a revised or differently scoped series. We do not compute a change between the two.

The gap between the two ISTAT sources is large. In 2024, resident nights in registered accommodation were about 2% below 2019 on the old basis. In ISTAT's household survey, resident nights of all kinds were 24% below and trips 31% below, on a 2024 series that may have been revised. The two can both be right if the trips that disappeared were mostly short stays with family, in second homes or in unregistered lets, while paid holidays held up. No ISTAT release tests that explanation, and the 2025 survey exists only as microdata released on 15 October 2026. Until ISTAT publishes headline results, the official answer to how often Italians take holidays stops in 2023.

What the surveys say, and why they cannot settle it

Summer 2026 produced many headline figures about Italians on holiday, almost all from surveys of intentions with unpublished methods.

Federalberghi, the hoteliers' association, with fieldwork by Tecnè, estimated 36.2 million Italians travelling between June and September 2026, as reported by ANSA on 24 July. Its 2025 estimate was 36.1 million. Its survey put 87.6% of trips in Italy and said 48.5% of Italians would not take a holiday, more than half of them for lack of money. We found no sample size or fieldwork date for either year.

Confturismo-Confcommercio, with the polling firm SWG, reported "about 3 million more departures" than in summer 2025 on 25 July 2026. That is a survey of plans, with no stated sample. Ipsos found 72% planning a summer holiday, roughly stable on 2025, with 47% planning to spend less. YouGov reported 27% not travelling, two points more than in 2025. Findomestic, a consumer-credit company, found 59% had taken or were finishing a holiday by late September, against 55% in 2025.

On 15 August 2026, Tourism Minister Gianmarco Mazzi told RTL 102.5 that summer 2026 had brought three million more departures for Italians. He named no dataset and referred to news he had read. The wording matches the Confturismo-SWG survey of intentions. It is not a measured figure. Eurostat's resident nights for June to August moved +2.38%, -3.08% and +0.33%.

Prices and budgets form the background. ISTAT's household spending survey for 2025 put average monthly spending at €2,782, about 1% above 2024 in nominal terms, while consumer prices rose 1.6% (our arithmetic; ISTAT flagged the change as stable). Consumer prices rose 3.3% in August 2026. As relayed by the news agency LaPresse, ISTAT's index for accommodation services was 4.0% higher in July 2026 than a year earlier. Eunews reported Eurostat figures showing 35.7% of Italians unable to afford a week's holiday away in 2025, up from 31.4%; we could not confirm the Italy value in the Eurostat dataset. Our guide to Italy's tourist tax rates covers one of the smaller costs added to every night.

The claims to treat with care

Four figures about Italians on holiday circulated in 2026. Two came from the Tourism Minister and two from news outlets. Each is checked below against the official series, with the source that settles it and what the data do show.

What this means for travelers, businesses and analysts

Travelers should know where the growth is landing. Resident nights barely moved in 2025 or in 2026 so far, so the extra demand in Italian accommodation comes from foreign visitors. In 2024 foreign guests already made up most nights in Veneto (70.5%), Lazio (67.2%), Lombardy (64.8%) and Trentino-Alto Adige (62.0%), on ISTAT's regional table. Rome's Jubilee drove much of the 2025 foreign rise; the Bank of Italy credits Jubilee visitors with nearly two-thirds of the growth in foreign spending, and our Jubilee 2025 analysis has the detail. Emilia-Romagna, Marche, Abruzzo and Calabria are the regions where residents make up most guests. Many visitors miss how Italian some well-known regions are. Puglia had 11.9 million resident nights in 2024 against 6.0 million foreign ones, so two in three of its guest nights were Italian residents'. Our Puglia travel guide covers when to go.

Tourism businesses and investors should separate two signals. Resident nights were flat in 2025 on the old basis, at about 212 million. On the new basis they total 233.8 million, a level with no earlier year to compare against. Either way residents hold about 44% of Italy's nights in 2025, a large and mature market. Resident arrivals are falling, and the stays that remain are longer. For an operator that sells by the night this is neutral. For one that sells by the stay, such as a resort with high turnover costs or a coastal hotel that relies on weekend breaks, it means fewer bookings to fill the same nights. Anyone underwriting a domestic-led destination on the 2025 regional totals will overstate its growth, because the new basis inflates every region with private lets. The thresholds to watch are the ISTAT third-quarter resident figures on 23 November and the full-year 2026 data in March 2027. A second year of falling resident arrivals with flat nights would confirm the shift to fewer, longer stays. Falling nights would mean a real contraction.

Journalists and analysts can cite these figures: ISTAT residents' arrivals -3.5% and nights 0.0% in 2025 on the old basis; ISTAT residents' nights 212,209,602 in 2024; Eurostat residents' nights 233.8 million in 2025 on the new basis; Eurostat residents' nights +0.06% from January to August 2026; ISTAT residents' nights +2.7% in the second quarter of 2026; and the Bank of Italy's €34.1 billion for Italians' spending abroad in 2025. The comparisons to avoid are in the box earlier in this article. The finding this article adds to our series is that the 2025 rentals break now affects the national resident series as well as the totals, regions and foreign markets, and that no restated 2024 exists to fix it.