Is Italy Now the Most Visited Country in Europe? It Depends Which Count You Use

Italy's EU lead rests on a change in what it counts

ISTAT set out the 2025 figures in a hearing to Parliament on 12 October 2026. It reported 535.5 million nights in Italian tourist accommodation, up 6.0%, and 160.8 million arrivals in accommodation, up 7.7%. Nights by foreign guests rose 8.0% and nights by Italian residents rose 3.5%. Foreign guests accounted for 56.3% of nights. Footnote 7 of the hearing explains the jump. For the first time, the extra-hotel data include private rentals managed on a non-business basis, and the 2024 figure was recalculated to match.

ISTAT's wording in the hearing placed Italy "al primo posto nell'Unione europea per numero di presenze turistiche," which translates as in first place in the European Union by number of tourist nights. That claim is accurate on its own terms. It refers to the EU, to nights and to the new basis.

The old basis still exists. ISTAT's Storie dati report on tourism, published 17 July 2026, gives 481 million nights for 2025 without the non-business rentals in its first footnote. Eurostat's news release of 4 March 2026 used an old-basis figure of 476.9 million. On either old-basis number, Spain was ahead in 2025. The difference between 535.5 million and 481 million is about 54.5 million nights (our calculation). That is the non-business rental component that tipped the ranking.

The rentals could be counted because hosts now have to register. Inclusion was made possible by mandatory registration in the Tourism Ministry's BDSR database. Officina Turistica, an Italian tourism analysis site, ties the change to the national identification code for rentals, known as the CIN, which became mandatory on 1 January 2025. Officina Turistica puts the wider rental category at 134.7 million nights in 2025. That figure covers ISTAT's whole category of rented accommodation, including lets run as businesses, so it is larger than the 54.5 million non-business component.

The growth rate depends on which base you pick. Eurostat's March release put Italy at 476.9 million, 2.3% above 2024 (our calculation). ISTAT's final old-basis total of 481 million is about 3.2% above 2024's 466.2 million (our calculation). ISTAT's headline 6.0% compares 2025 with a restated 2024. ISTAT's Statistica Today release of 9 March 2026 put that restated 2024 at "oltre 505 milioni," ISTAT's wording for over 505 million. That restatement adds about 39 million non-business rental nights to the old-basis 2024 figure of 466.2 million. It was provisional and covered private rentals in only 92 of Italy's 107 provinces. So the 6.0% still contains some coverage expansion. On the restated basis, 2024 was roughly a tie with Spain's 505.2 million. The 6.0% figure implies a restated 2024 of about 505.2 million for Italy too (our calculation).

The Eurostat database adds a third growth rate that nobody should cite. Its 2025 value for Italy is the new 535.5 million, but its 2024 value is still the old-basis 466.2 million. The API response we opened shows no break-in-series flag. A reader who divides one by the other gets growth of 14.87% (our calculation). That number mixes two bases. Over the same years, the database shows Spain up 1.53% and France up 3.06% (our calculation).

One analyst has tried to strip the coverage change out entirely. A. Bazzucchi of Officina Turistica modeled what Italy's 2025 growth would have been on a constant basis and put it between 1.6% and 2.6%. That is an analyst's counterfactual estimate. ISTAT has not published a comparable estimate. We report it as one view and do not use it as data.

The practical rule for anyone comparing Italy across years is simple. A series that runs from 2024 into 2025 crosses a change in coverage. The Eurostat annual table does not flag it. ISTAT's own releases do, in footnotes. Any growth rate for Italy's 2025 nights needs its basis stated next to it, or it cannot be checked.

Spain's side of the comparison has its own scope. INE's 512.9 million is a count of collective accommodation. INE's own releases split it into 366.7 million hotel nights and 146.3 million extra-hotel nights (rounded, so the parts sum to 513.0 million) in licensed tourist apartments, campsites, rural lodgings and hostels. INE also runs an experimental statistic on tourist dwellings, but it counts dwellings and beds, not nights. We found no published count of nights in Spain's private tourist dwellings. The comparison therefore sets an Italian total that includes non-business rentals against a Spanish total that does not.

On the Eurostat database, Italy's 535.5 million nights are 17.0% of the EU27 total of 3.14 billion. Spain holds 16.3% and France 15.0% (our calculation). With the rentals, Italy leads Spain by 22.6 million nights. Without them, Spain leads by about 31.9 million (both our calculation).

On visitors from abroad, Spain leads and France reports the most arrivals

Count only nights by people who live outside the country, and Spain stays ahead. Eurostat puts Spain's 2025 non-resident nights at 328.9 million, Italy's at 301.6 million and France's at 150.8 million. Italy's figure already includes the private rentals. Spain's lead on foreign nights is 27.3 million (our calculation). In 2024, Spain recorded 322.2 million foreign nights and Italy 253.9 million, with Italy on the old basis.

Foreign guests make up 64.1% of Spain's nights and 56.3% of Italy's (our calculation from Eurostat). ISTAT's Storie dati gives Italy's foreign share as 55.3%, because it excludes the non-business rentals. Both Italian shares are correct for their basis. ISTAT's Storie dati puts the ranking in a longer frame. Italy was first in the EU in 1995, with 286 million nights. By 2024 it was behind Spain "in totale e soprattutto per la componente estera," ISTAT's wording for in total and above all in the foreign component. ISTAT's hearing places Italy fourth in the EU in 2019, with a 15.2% share of nights, and Eurostat's 2023 data put it third. Storie dati also places Italy steadily third, behind France and Spain, on nights booked through online platforms, using Eurostat platform data for 2018 to 2024.

Arrivals tell a third story. France reports the most international arrivals (102 million, Atout France) for 2025, and Atout France's release does not name the underlying source. INE's FRONTUR survey counted 96.77 million for Spain, a provisional figure. The Bank of Italy counted 61.4 million for Italy. The Bank of Italy's headline of 92.2 million foreign travelers includes 30.8 million same-day visitors. Only the 61.4 million overnight visitors compare with international tourist arrivals elsewhere. Overnight visitors were 66.6% of the Bank of Italy total (our calculation).

The three arrivals figures also come from different kinds of source. The Bank of Italy and INE publish survey-based counts of international visitors. Atout France publishes an annual review whose 2025 release gives the 102 million without naming the survey behind it. None of the three counts is the same as ISTAT's arrivals in accommodation, which record each check-in, so one visitor who moves between three hotels counts three times there.

The Bank of Italy also counts 392.8 million foreign nights for 2025, with an average stay of 6.4 nights. That survey covers stays with friends, in second homes and in other informal lodging. It measures something wider than accommodation nights, so it cannot be set against Eurostat's 301.6 million.

Spending follows arrivals more than nights. On the balance of payments, Spain earned €105.2 billion from international travel in 2025, according to the Banco de España. France's figure is €77.5 billion from Atout France. The Banque de France's own report gives only growth of 9.0% and a surplus of €20.0 billion, so we could not check the absolute value at the primary source. Italy earned €56.7 billion, according to the Bank of Italy. Italy's receipts are about 54% of Spain's (our calculation). We left out Spain's EGATUR spending figure of €134.7 billion, because it includes transport and package costs and is not a balance-of-payments measure. Mazzi has cited total spending of €185 billion, according to l'Adige, carrying an ANSA report on 10 October 2026, with no source given. AgenziaCult on 17 October credited the figure to the report presented at a Tourism Ministry event that day.

The Bank of Italy's survey breaks down visitors by country. It counted 4.1 million travelers from the United States, who spent €6.6 billion, and 7.0 million from the United Kingdom, who spent €5.3 billion.

Italy's lead on total nights comes from residents and rentals. Italians spent 233.8 million nights in their own country's tourist accommodation in 2025, against 184.0 million for Spanish residents in Spain. France, at 320.9 million, and Germany, at 357.1 million, have larger domestic markets still. Italy's 160.8 million arrivals in accommodation, reported by ISTAT, are a count of check-ins by residents and non-residents alike. They are a separate measure from international arrivals. On 15 July 2026, Mazzi told a joint hearing of Chamber and Senate committees that 2025 had over 185 million arrivals, citing the Interior Ministry (Italpress, 15 July). That is a different source again. We use ISTAT's figure.

Germany shows how far a domestic market can carry a total. Eurostat records 440.2 million nights in German tourist accommodation in 2025, of which 83.1 million were by non-residents. Germany's total is close to France's 471.7 million, but its foreign count is just over half of France's 150.8 million. The same logic applies to Italy on a smaller scale. A large share of its total comes from people who live there, and residents' nights rose 3.5% in 2025 on ISTAT's new basis.

The 2026 record claims, and what like-for-like data shows

On 17 October 2026, Mazzi said Italy had recorded 523.7 million nights from January to September 2026, up 4.7%, leaving it 11.8 million short of the 2025 record. QN reported the figures on 18 October and Teleborsa on 19 October. Neither report names the series behind them.

The figures do not fit the Eurostat monthly series. Eurostat's tour_occ_nim, updated 22 October 2026, gives Italy 407.7 million nights for January to August 2026. Reaching 523.7 million by the end of September would need about 116.0 million nights in September alone (our calculation). September 2025 had 58.3 million. On the same series, January to September 2025 totaled 454.6 million. Against that base, 523.7 million would be growth of 15.2%. A 4.7% rise implies a base of about 500.2 million (both our calculation). The most likely source is the Interior Ministry's Alloggiati Web registration data. That is our inference, and we could not confirm it. The Ministry used the Interior Ministry's Alloggiati Web data for its first-half 2026 arrivals (Italpress, 15 July).

The 11.8 million gap is the difference between the 535.5 million full-year total for 2025 and the 523.7 million claim for nine months of 2026. It compares two series. The full-year 2025 total is ISTAT's, and the 2026 figure appears to come from a registration system with its own coverage. Subtracting one from the other says nothing about whether 2026 will set a record.

The Tourism Ministry publishes a monthly bulletin, Viaggiando con il Ministero, and we read its August 2026 edition while tracing the 523.7 million figure. Our inference is that the bulletin's series, built on the Interior Ministry's Alloggiati Web guest registrations, is the most likely home of Mazzi's numbers. A registration count and ISTAT's accommodation statistics are separate series with separate coverage, so their totals need not match. The inference stays unconfirmed until the Ministry names its source. Until then, the checkable 2026 counts are ISTAT's provisional figure for January to July (+2.7%, foreign guests +4.8%, data to 24 September) and Eurostat's monthly series, which shows 407.7 million nights through August.

A like-for-like comparison is possible on Eurostat's monthly data. The monthly 2025 values for Italy add up to the new annual total, so both 2025 and 2026 are on the new basis that includes non-business rentals. From January to August, Italy's nights rose 2.87%, from 396.3 million to 407.7 million. Spain's rose 1.14%, from 361.1 million to 365.2 million. France's rose 0.41%, from 360.1 million to 361.6 million (growth rates our calculation). Italy led Spain by 42.5 million nights over the eight months (our calculation).

August figures show the scale of summer demand. Italy recorded 98.8 million nights in August 2026, France 89.6 million and Spain 75.0 million. ISTAT's own provisional count, given in its 12 October hearing with data to 24 September, shows nights up 2.7% for January to July 2026 and foreign guests up 4.8%. L'Agenzia di Viaggi reported the same figures on 13 October.

How Italy's lead became first in Europe in the headlines

The jump from first in the EU on nights to first in Europe happened within weeks. Mazzi began citing the 535.5 million figure on 27 September 2026. That day Il Sole 24 Ore's English edition, carrying Radiocor, reported Mazzi saying Italy had overtaken Spain and taken the top spot in Europe. Affaritaliani's headline the same day said first in Europe, while its text said the EU. L'Agenzia di Viaggi did the same on 13 October, with Europe in the headline and the European Union in the body. Affaritaliani's report of 27 September also quoted Mazzi putting the tourism sector's value at €240 billion and 13% to 18% of GDP. We found no source for those figures. ISTAT's claim covered the EU, total nights and the new basis. None of those reports says the lead depends on rentals counted for the first time.

Mazzi's own numbers moved during the year. On 15 July 2026, he told a joint hearing of Chamber and Senate committees that 2025 had 477 million nights, citing ISTAT, and over 185 million arrivals, citing the Interior Ministry (Italpress, 15 July). That 477 million matches the old-basis figure that Eurostat published in March, rounded. From 27 September he cited 535.5 million. The minister moved from the old basis to the new one within the same year without saying so in the statements we found. On 19 October, Teleborsa reported his claim that 2025 was more than 22% above 2019. That compares a new-basis 2025 with an old-basis 2019, and we did not query Eurostat's 2019 values.

Some claims hold up. Mazzi said Italy overtook France in 2024 (L'Agenzia di Viaggi, 13 October 2026). On Eurostat total nights, Italy had 447.2 million in 2023 against France's 460.3 million, then 466.2 million in 2024 against France's 457.6 million. Italy did pass France in 2024, on the old basis.

Other claims do not. On 17 October, AgenziaCult, citing the report presented at the Tourism Ministry's event that day on how tourism has changed since the 1960s, said Italy rose from fourth to first between 2023 and 2025 and held about a fifth of the European market. Italy was fourth in 2019, according to ISTAT. In Eurostat's 2023 data Italy ranked third, behind Spain and France and ahead of Germany. Its 2025 share of EU27 nights is 17.0% (our calculation). Italpress, on 15 July, quoted Mazzi calling Italy the queen of Europe for summer 2026. That claim rested on how full online booking platforms were, which is a saturation measure and says nothing about visitor numbers. On 10 October, l'Adige carried an ANSA report of Mazzi saying Italy was first in Europe for September saturation at over 62%, with no source given.

Errors run in Spain's favor too. ANBBA on 5 June and Euronews on 19 May 2026 gave Spain 329.66 million and Italy 264.74 million international nights for 2025. The Eurostat database now shows 328.9 million and 301.6 million. TRAVEL Extra reported on 5 June that Spain had 93.8 million and Italy 60.6 million international arrivals, presented alongside France's 2025 figure and attributed to the UN's tourism agency. Spain's 93.8 million matches its 2024 total from INE. INE gives 96.77 million for 2025 and the Bank of Italy gives 61.4 million. Atout France's claim of 102 million arrivals, and its description of France as the most visited country in the world, appear in a press release that does not name the underlying source. The UN Tourism data needed to test the world ranking did not load when we tried to open it.

Our own plan needed correcting as well. Our insights plan of 28 October 2026 framed the story as growth of 6.0% on the new basis against 2.3% on the old. There are three growth figures, and the 6.0% still includes coverage expansion. The plan also used Mazzi's 523.7 million as data for a later article. It is now dropped as a lead. The plan said Spain was ahead in 2025 on Eurostat collective accommodation. That was true of the March release and was overtaken by the October database update.

What this means for travelers, businesses and analysts

Travelers should read the headline as a sign of how busy Italy is with its own residents and with holiday lets. Italy's lead over Spain on nights comes from 233.8 million domestic nights and about 54.5 million nights in non-business private rentals (our calculation), while Spain draws more foreign nights. Italy recorded 98.8 million nights in August 2026 alone, more than France or Spain and about a quarter of its January to August total (our calculation). Private rentals in Italy must now register with the Tourism Ministry, which is how ISTAT could count them. The Bank of Italy counted 4.1 million US travelers in 2025. Whether you start in Rome or head south to Puglia, a trip outside August competes with less of that demand. For an island trip with room to spread out, start with our Sicily travel guide.

Tourism businesses and investors should plan on like-for-like growth. On the Eurostat monthly series, Italy's nights rose 2.87% from January to August 2026, against 1.14% for Spain and 0.41% for France. Those figures compare the same basis in both years. ISTAT's 6.0% for 2025 includes coverage gains, and the 14.87% that the Eurostat database implies mixes two bases. On foreign demand, Italy trails Spain by 27.3 million nights and earns about 54% of Spain's international travel receipts (both our calculation). City-level measures, such as the Trevi Fountain ticket results, sit outside these national series and need their own data.

Journalists and analysts can cite these figures with their scope. Italy recorded 535.5 million nights in 2025 including non-business private rentals, first in the EU by nights (Eurostat, ISTAT). Without those rentals the total is 481 million, and Spain's 512.9 million is higher. Spain leads on non-resident nights, 328.9 million to 301.6 million, and on receipts, €105.2 billion to €56.7 billion. France reports the most international overnight arrivals at 102 million, a figure Atout France does not source. Claims not to repeat include Italy as first in Europe without the EU, nights and rentals qualifiers, the 523.7 million nights for January to September 2026, the 11.8 million gap to the record, the rise from fourth to first, and any 2025 growth rate without its basis.