Europe Tourism Statistics 2025: Italy, Spain, France, Greece and Portugal, and the Measure That Lines Up Best

Nights: Italy's 2025 total sits on a different basis

Eurostat's database, updated on 12 October 2026, gives the five countries' 2025 nights in tourist accommodation. Italy recorded 535.5 million, Spain 512.9 million, France 471.7 million, Greece 156.3 million and Portugal 89.4 million. Italy's 535.5 million is the largest total, and the only one that includes non-business private rentals. The ranking does not hold once the basis is named.

ISTAT, Italy's statistics office, added private rentals managed on a non-business basis to its 2025 count. Its Storie dati report of 17 July 2026 gives 481 million nights for 2025 without them. On that figure Spain leads Italy by about 32 million nights (our calculation). Eurostat's own news release of 4 March 2026 used an older Italian figure of 476.9 million, which also left Spain ahead. The new basis widens what is counted. On its own it says nothing about how many more people traveled.

The Eurostat database compounds the problem. Its 2025 value for Italy is on the new basis, but its 2024 value of 466.2 million is still on the old one. The API response we opened on 7 November 2026 carries no status flag for either year. Dividing one by the other would mix two bases, so the database gives no usable growth rate for Italy. On ISTAT's old basis, 481 million is about 3.2% above 2024's 466.2 million (our calculation). Our earlier article on Italy and Spain's competing nights totals traces how the change was made and how the first-in-Europe claim spread.

The other four countries' growth rates sit on a stable basis in the database. From 2024 to 2025, Spain's nights rose 1.53%, France's 3.06%, Greece's 2.22% and Portugal's 1.54% (all our calculation). On a like-for-like monthly basis for 2026, our 2026 record watch tracks Italy against Spain and France with both years on the new Italian basis.

Even without Italy's change, the five totals are not identical in scope. Eurostat's methodology note allows countries to leave out small establishments, with thresholds of under 10 bed places, or under 20 for countries with less than 1% of EU nights. The note says the thresholds are not harmonized and that this affects comparability. That note was last updated in January 2024, before Italy's change. Spain's total covers hotels, campsites, tourist apartments, rural lodgings and hostels, and we found no published count of nights in Spain's private tourist dwellings. The comparison sets an Italian total that now includes non-business rentals against a Spanish total that does not.

The split between residents and visitors from abroad says more than the totals. Spain had the most nights by non-residents in 2025, 328.9 million. Italy followed with 301.6 million on its new basis, then France with 150.8 million, Greece with 131.1 million and Portugal with 60.0 million. As a share of each country's nights, non-residents accounted for 83.8% in Greece, 67.1% in Portugal, 64.1% in Spain, 56.3% in Italy and 32.0% in France (our calculation). France's large total rests on its own residents, who spent 320.9 million nights in French accommodation, more than residents of any of the other four in their own country.

Arrivals: five counts, five definitions

Each of the five countries publishes a 2025 arrivals figure. Each counts something different, so they cannot form one league table.

Spain's figure is the most tightly defined. INE's FRONTUR survey counted 96.8 million international tourists in 2025 (96,770,515), up 3.2%. The table footnote says the figure excludes transit passengers and same-day visitors. INE says the data are provisional and will be revised in March 2027. The release's methodology section describes a wider survey population that includes same-day and transit visitors, so the page is not fully consistent, but the published 96.8 million is the overnight figure.

France reported 102 million international tourists for 2025, up from 100 million in 2024. The figure appears in press release no. 403 from Atout France and the economy ministry, dated 19 February 2026. The release does not define an international tourist and does not name the survey or data source behind the number. The minister's speech the same day gives no definition either. The release also uses "visitors" and "tourists" interchangeably.

Italy publishes two headline figures from the same source. The Bank of Italy's border survey, published on 26 June 2026, counted 92.2 million foreign travelers in 2025. That total includes 30.8 million same-day visitors. The remaining 61.4 million overnight travelers, up 6.3% from 57.8 million, are the closest Italian equivalent to Spain's count of tourists. The Bank's unit is the trip, so one person who visits twice counts twice.

Greece's figure also comes from its central bank. The Bank of Greece's final release of 7 May 2026 put inbound travelers at 43.3 million (43,311.9 thousand), up 6.4%. The 37.98 million in February press reports was a narrower provisional count excluding cruise passengers (Euronews, 24 Feb 2026), measured against a 2024 base of 35.95 million. The final release's 2024 base is about 40.7 million. Portugal's INE reported 29.9 million non-resident tourists for 2025, up 3.3% after 9.3% growth in 2024. We read that figure through ECO, a Portuguese business news site, on 9 July 2026, and the report does not give INE's definition. INE's own publication could not be checked at the primary source.

None of these five figures is the same as arrivals in accommodation. ISTAT counted 160.8 million arrivals in Italian accommodation in 2025, residents and non-residents together. That count records each check-in, so a visitor who moves between three hotels counts three times. Tourism Minister Gianmarco Mazzi has also cited more than 185 million arrivals for 2025 from the Interior Ministry's guest registration system (Italpress, 15 July 2026), a third series again. Neither can be set against Spain's 96.8 million tourists or Greece's 43.3 million travelers.

The France and Spain gap shows why a ranking fails. France's lead over Spain on published figures is 5.2 million arrivals (our calculation). Without France's definition, nobody can say whether that gap reflects more visitors or a wider count. The same applies to UN Tourism's global tables. Its May 2026 World Tourism Barometer gives regional totals and growth rates but no 2025 country ranking. The only country ranking we found online uses 2024 data. The fair statement is that France and Spain each report the largest arrival counts in Europe on their own definitions, with Italy, Greece and Portugal well behind on theirs.

Receipts: the most comparable measure

Travel receipts in the balance of payments measure what non-resident visitors spend on goods and services in the country. International transport fares sit elsewhere in the accounts. The Bank of Italy states this exclusion. Atout France's release and the Spanish, Greek and Portuguese pages we read do not mention it. Eurostat publishes all five countries' figures in one dataset, bop_c6_a, built on the IMF's sixth balance-of-payments manual. For 2025, its values match each national release within 0.1%.

Spain earned €105.1 billion in 2025 on Eurostat's figures. The Banco de España's advance release of 27 February 2026 gives €105.2 billion, equal to 6.2% of GDP. France earned €77.5 billion, Italy €56.7 billion, Portugal €29.1 billion and Greece €23.6 billion. Italy's figure comes from the Bank of Italy's survey of international tourism, where receipts equal 2.5% of GDP. Greece's comes from the Bank of Greece's final data. Portugal's comes from the Banco de Portugal, as reported by ECO on 19 February 2026, because the Banco de Portugal's own figures could not be checked at the primary source. Eurostat gives €29.1 billion as well.

Spain alone took 36.0% of the five countries' combined receipts of €292.1 billion (our calculation). Italy's receipts were 54% of Spain's (our calculation).

Growth in 2025 was fastest in Greece and France. Greece's receipts rose 9.4%, France's 9.0%, Spain's 6.9%, Portugal's 5.0% and Italy's 4.6% (Eurostat, nominal, our calculation). The Bank of Greece and Atout France publish the same rates for their countries. Only the Bank of Italy publishes a real growth rate, 3.1% for Italy. Over two years the gap is wider. From 2023 to 2025, receipts grew 23.6% in Spain, 17.7% in France, 14.7% in Greece, 14.3% in Portugal and 9.7% in Italy (our calculation, nominal). Italy had the slowest rise of the five on this measure. Our article on Italy's receipts and surplus covers the real-terms picture in detail.

The balance tells a different story from receipts. Residents of each country also travel abroad, and their spending is the payments side. French residents spent €57.5 billion abroad in 2025 (Eurostat; Atout France gives €57.4 billion), so France's surplus was €20.0 billion. Italy's was €22.7 billion, Portugal's €22.0 billion and Greece's €20.3 billion. Four countries with receipts ranging from €23.6 billion to €77.5 billion ended up within €2.7 billion of each other on the balance. Greece's residents spent only €3.3 billion abroad, so almost all of its receipts stayed as surplus.

Spain's surplus was €72.0 billion on Eurostat's credit and debit figures. The Banco de España's release gives a tourism surplus of €70.3 billion, 4.2% of GDP. The two do not reconcile on the pages we opened, and the same gap appears for 2024 (€68.5 billion against €68.2 billion). France has three surplus figures in circulation. Eurostat's arithmetic gives €20.0 billion, Atout France €20.1 billion, and the Banque de France's seasonally and working-day adjusted series €20.2 billion. The differences come from seasonal adjustment and rounding. For Portugal, ECO reports a balance of about €22 billion, the highest since 1948, worth 7.2% of GDP. That share refers to the balance. Receipts are the larger figure.

Atout France's release adds a comparison with Spain that is easy to misread. It says the receipts gap between France and Spain "se stabilise" at −36% in 2025, against −38% in 2024. Measured against France's receipts, (77.5 − 105) ÷ 77.5 gives −35.5%, and the 2024 figures give −38.4% (our calculation). The arithmetic holds on that base. Measured against Spain's receipts, the gap is 26%. The release also shows Spain was ahead in 2024, and Eurostat shows Spain ahead in 2023 as well, €85.1 billion against €65.9 billion. Spain did not overtake France in 2025. It has led on receipts throughout the period.

One more Spanish figure needs to be kept apart. INE's EGATUR survey put non-resident tourists' spending at €134.7 billion in 2025. That is a survey of total trip spending, a wider measure than the balance-of-payments item. It cannot be set against France's or Italy's receipts. The Portugal series on our sister site covers Portugal's tourism receipts and travel surplus in more depth.

Per resident and per night: the order changes

Dividing by population turns the receipts table upside down. Portugal earned about €2,709 from foreign visitors per resident in 2025, Greece €2,278, Spain €2,140, France €1,125 and Italy €962 (our calculation). Italy ranks third on total receipts and last per resident. The two published GDP shares make the same point. Spain's receipts equal 6.2% of its GDP and Italy's 2.5%. We found no comparable receipts share for France, Greece or Portugal in the sources we opened. Our article on tourism's share of Italy's GDP and jobs explains why the wider tourism-economy shares that circulate are a different measure.

Nights per resident show how basis choices move a ranking. Greece recorded 15.1 nights in tourist accommodation per resident in 2025, Spain 10.4, Portugal 8.3 and France 6.8 (our calculation). Italy recorded 9.1 on its new basis, placing it third. On ISTAT's 481 million without non-business rentals, Italy recorded 8.2 and falls to fourth, behind Portugal. One change in coverage is enough to swap two countries.

Receipts per night are harder still. Dividing each country's receipts by its registered non-resident nights gives about €514 in France, €485 in Portugal, €320 in Spain and €180 in Greece (our calculation). We leave Italy out because its nights figure has just changed basis. The spread is too wide to be a measure of spending. Receipts include spending by same-day visitors, by people staying with friends or in second homes and by guests in lodgings the accommodation statistics do not cover. The registered nights leave those visitors out. Where both figures exist, the gap is large. The Bank of Greece's survey counted 244.7 million overnight stays by foreign visitors in 2025, while Eurostat's registered count is 131.1 million, about 54% of the survey total (our calculation). In Italy, Eurostat's 301.6 million non-resident nights are about 77% of the Bank of Italy's 392.8 million (our calculation). A high ratio for France may reflect how much of its foreign stays the accommodation count misses. It does not show that visitors to France spend more per night.

Two central banks publish a survey-based spend per night that avoids this problem. The Bank of Italy gives €139.1 per night for foreign overnight travelers in 2025. The Bank of Greece gives €96.6 per overnight stay. Both are border surveys tied to balance-of-payments receipts, but the designs differ, so the gap is indicative only. We did not find an equivalent figure for Spain, France or Portugal in the sources we opened.

The five markets also trade visitors with each other. The Bank of Greece reports that visitors from Italy spent €1,285.7 million in Greece in 2025, up 4.9%. Among the markets the release lists, Italy ranks fifth, after Germany, the United Kingdom, the United States and France. Germany led at €3,784.7 million and the United Kingdom followed at €3,741.6 million, up 18.4%. Part of each country's payments is another country's receipts in this table.

Composite indexes are a separate matter. The World Economic Forum's Travel and Tourism Development Index 2026 ranks Spain 3rd, France 5th, Italy 10th, Portugal 11th and Greece 21st. Those ranks score conditions such as transport, culture and prices. They do not measure visitor volumes or spending. Our article on Italy's place in the 2026 index covers what the index measures and why its editions do not compare directly.

What each country does not publish

Italy has not published a full restated 2024 on its new nights basis. ISTAT's 9 March 2026 release gave a partial restatement of "oltre 505 milioni", ISTAT's wording for over 505 million, covering rentals in 92 of 107 provinces. Eurostat shows the change with no break flag, and we did not open ISTAT's methodological note on the new rental coverage. Our reading guide to Italy's 2025 tourism series sets out which Italian series to use for which question.

Spain publishes no count of nights in private tourist dwellings. INE runs an experimental statistic on tourist dwellings, but it counts dwellings and beds. The Banco de España release we read gives receipts and the surplus but not an annual payments figure, and its surplus does not reconcile with Eurostat's credit-minus-debit balance.

France publishes no definition, method or source for its 102 million arrivals in the release or in the minister's speech. We verified French nights only through Eurostat, and did not open INSEE's own accommodation releases.

Greece's 2025 arrivals appeared as 37.98 million in February press coverage, a narrower provisional count that excluded cruise passengers, and as 43.3 million inbound travelers in the Bank of Greece's final May release. The two rest on different 2024 bases, 35.95 million and about 40.7 million. We did not open ELSTAT's accommodation statistics or find a receipts-to-GDP share for Greece.

Portugal's figures from the Banco de Portugal's BPstat pages and INE's publication could not be checked at the primary source, so Portugal's national figures come from ECO and other press reports. Eurostat's figures confirm the receipts. INE's 89.7 million nights reported by ECO for 2025 differ slightly from Eurostat's 89.4 million, and we did not check why.

Across all five, nobody publishes international arrivals on one shared definition for 2025. UN Tourism's 2025 country table was not available in the sources we could open. That gap is the main reason the most-visited argument cannot be settled with public data.

Claims that circulated, checked

Several 2025 rankings and totals were reported before the final figures or on measures that do not support them. The panel below sets each claim against the evidence.

What this means for travelers, businesses and analysts

Travelers comparing these five countries should read every most-visited claim as a statement about one particular count. None of them measures crowds. Spain and France report the largest numbers of international visitors, and Greece has the highest share of nights taken by visitors from abroad, 83.8% in 2025. Italy's record total of nights comes partly from counting private rentals that were not in its earlier figures. For a sense of pressure on a destination, foreign visitors' nights and the seasonal pattern tell you more than a national total.

Tourism businesses and investors should benchmark on receipts and on non-resident nights. National arrival counts do not compare. On receipts, Spain is far ahead and Italy's growth from 2023 to 2025 was the slowest of the five in nominal terms, 9.7% against Spain's 23.6% (our calculation). Italy also earns the least per resident, about €962. Any Italian growth story built on 2025 nights needs the basis stated, because the Eurostat database mixes two bases for Italy without a flag.

Journalists and analysts should take their figures from the "Which number to cite" box above, with each source and basis named. Claims not to repeat include Italy being first in Europe on nights without naming the basis, France as the world's most visited country presented as a like-for-like ranking, Spain overtaking France on receipts in 2025, and Greece's 37.98 million presented as the full 2025 arrivals count. The finding that runs through this series applies here too. Italian and European authorities publish headline totals, but the definitions and restatements needed to compare them often arrive late, sit in footnotes or are missing.