Key takeaways
- Residents of Poland spent €1,299 million in Italy in 2025, up 0.2%, the lowest of the ten countries named in the Bank of Italy's international tourism survey (Table 3, published 26 June 2026) and 2.3% of all foreign spending.
- Polish visitors made 2.7 million trips to Italy in 2025, including same-day visits; 2.2 million included at least one night, down 2.1%, and the average overnight trip fell to 4.6 nights from 5.1 in 2023 (Bank of Italy, Table 4).
- Polish spending per night rose from €107.6 in 2023 to €125.5 in 2025, up 16.6% by our calculation, but stayed ninth of the Bank of Italy's ten countries and below the all-foreign average of €139.1.
- ISTAT counted 9,401,226 Polish nights in registered accommodation in 2024, 3.7% of foreign nights; Poland rose from eleventh to eighth among foreign markets between 2014 and 2024 (Statistica Today, 9 March 2026).
- Eurostat's 2025 figure of 13,027,925 Polish nights includes private non-business rentals for the first time and cannot be compared with 2024; the last comparable change is +20.3% in 2024, against +8.4% for all foreign nights (our calculations).
- Flights between Poland and Italy carried 6.8 million passengers in 2025, up 32.2%, the largest percentage growth among Italy's EU partner countries; the figure counts passengers of all nationalities in both directions (ENAC, Dati di traffico 2025).
- The 75.6% rise reported for Pisa is the change in Polish nights in the Comune di Pisa in 2025, provisional; all nights in the city rose 2.7%, and all of the city's net growth came from tourist rentals (Comune di Pisa tourism report, our calculation from its tables).
- Wizz Air opened Pisa-Warsaw on 1 April 2025 and Pisa-Katowice on 2 June 2025, and Ryanair added Pisa-Warsaw for winter 2025, but no source gives passenger nationality at Pisa airport, so no published data link the routes to the rise in Polish nights.
Polish visitors spent €1,299 million in Italy in 2025, the least of the ten countries named in the Bank of Italy's international tourism survey. Yet ISTAT ranks Poland eighth among foreign markets for nights in Italian hotels, campsites and other registered accommodation in 2024. Air traffic between Poland and Italy grew 32.2% in 2025, the fastest rise of any EU country in the civil aviation authority ENAC's report.
The gap between those rankings has a simple structure. Polish visitors come often, stay a few nights and spend less per night than almost any other large market. The Bank of Italy puts their spending at €125.5 per night in 2025, ninth of its ten countries and below the all-foreign average of €139.1. Their trips are getting shorter, at 4.6 nights in 2025 against 5.1 in 2023. Poland is a small market for Italy, but Italy is a large destination for Poles. In a survey by Poland's CBOS, Italy was the most visited foreign destination among Poles who holidayed abroad in 2024.
Pisa shows the sharpest local change. The city's tourism observatory reports that nights spent by Polish visitors in the Comune di Pisa rose 75.6% in 2025, while all nights in the city rose 2.7%. Wizz Air opened routes from Pisa to Warsaw and Katowice the same year. No published source gives the nationality of passengers at Pisa airport, so the routes and the nights are linked only by timing. Nobody has measured the connection. This article sets out what each count shows, following our pieces on German tourists in Italy and British tourists in Italy.
Four counts of one market
Four official sources describe Polish visitors to Italy, and each counts something different. The Bank of Italy's border survey counts trips, including same-day visits, and the money spent on them. ISTAT and Eurostat count nights and arrivals in registered accommodation. ENAC counts airport passengers on flights between the two countries, of every nationality and in both directions. Poland's public-opinion institute CBOS asks a sample of Polish adults where they went.
The four counts do not add up to one number of Polish tourists. A Pole who visits twice counts twice in the Bank's survey. A Pole who stays with friends counts in the Bank's survey and not in ISTAT's. An Italian flying home from Warsaw counts in ENAC's figure. Table 1 lists the counts side by side with their units, and each figure in this article names its source.
| Count | Value | Unit | Who is counted | Period | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Trips, all | 2.7 | Trips (border crossings), same-day visits included, millions | Residents of Poland entering Italy, any accommodation | 2025 | Bank of Italy, ITI, Table 4 |
| Trips with an overnight stay | 2.2 | Trips with at least one night, millions | As above, overnight trips only | 2025 | Bank of Italy, ITI, Table 4 |
| Spending | 1,299 | Euros spent, € millions, international fares excluded | All Polish trips, same-day visits included | 2025 | Bank of Italy, ITI, Table 3 |
| Nights in registered accommodation (old basis) | 9.40 | Nights, millions | Residents of Poland in hotels, holiday and short-stay accommodation and campsites | 2024 | ISTAT, Statistica Today, 9 Mar 2026; Eurostat tour_occ_ninraw |
| Nights in registered accommodation (new basis) | 13.03 | Nights, millions | As above, plus private non-business rentals for the first time | 2025 | Eurostat tour_occ_ninraw |
| Air passengers, Poland-Italy flights | 6.8 | Airport passengers, millions | All nationalities, both directions | 2025 | ENAC, Dati di traffico 2025, p. 35 |
| Share of Polish adults' foreign holidaymakers who visited Italy | 19 | Percent of respondents who spent at least two days abroad on holiday | 282 of a sample of 972 Polish adults | 2024 | CBOS, Komunikat 14/2025 |
Small spenders, shorter stays
The Bank of Italy's survey, published on 26 June 2026, puts Polish spending at €1,192 million in 2023, €1,297 million in 2024 and €1,299 million in 2025. The 2025 change was +0.2%, against +4.6% for all foreign visitors. Poland accounted for 2.3% of foreign spending, which totaled €56,724 million. The Bank lists the ten countries of residence with the highest spending in 2025, and Poland is tenth.
Trips held level. Residents of Poland made 2.7 million trips to Italy in 2025, up 0.8% on the Bank's figures and 2.9% of all foreign trips. Trips with at least one night fell 2.1%, to 2.2 million. On our arithmetic from those rounded totals, about 0.5 million Polish trips in 2025 were same-day visits, close to one in five. The Bank does not publish a same-day figure by country, so that number carries a margin of about 0.1 million.
The stays are shrinking. The average Polish overnight trip lasted 5.1 nights in 2023, 4.9 in 2024 and 4.6 in 2025, a fall of 6.0% in the last year on the Bank of Italy's own rate. Spending per night moved the other way, from €107.6 in 2023 to €115.2 in 2024 and €125.5 in 2025. That is a rise of 16.6% over two years on our calculation. Shorter stays at higher nightly spend left the total almost unchanged.
Polish spending per night is low by the standards of the Bank's table. Canada leads at €185.2 and the United States follows at €178.1. Germany is at €140.2 and France at €132.6. Only Spain, at €110.3, is below Poland. On our calculation, Polish visitors spent about €481 per trip and €581 per overnight trip in 2025, against about €615 and €889 for all foreign visitors. Those are derived from rounded trip counts and are approximate.
Polish spending also grew more slowly than that of the larger markets. In the same Bank of Italy table, spending by UK residents rose 7.6% in 2025, by French residents 5.4%, by US residents 3.0% and by German residents 1.6%. Poland's +0.2% was the weakest of those five. The Bank does not explain differences between countries, and its tables give no Polish breakdown by region, accommodation or reason beyond holidays and other personal trips. The survey can show that Polish visitors are spending more per night and staying fewer nights. It cannot show where in Italy they spend it.
Holidays carry most of the spending. Polish visitors spent €879 million on holiday trips in 2025, up 6.1% (Bank of Italy), and €1,134 million on all personal trips, up 8.9%. Holidays were about 68% of Polish spending on our calculation. The remainder, which includes business travel, fell from €256 million in 2024 to €165 million in 2025. The Bank does not print that remainder as a Polish row, so it is our subtraction. Comparable figures for other markets are in our report on American tourists in Italy.
Eighth for registered nights, and Italy first for Poles
The accommodation count tells a different story from the survey. ISTAT's report on 2024, published on 9 March 2026, counted 9,401,226 nights by residents of Poland in Italian hotels and registered extra-hotel accommodation. That was 3.7% of foreign nights, up from 4,320,330 and 2.3% in 2014. ISTAT notes the strong growth of Poland, which climbed from eleventh to eighth place among foreign markets over the decade. Poland's nights rose 117.6% in those ten years (ISTAT), about 8.1% a year compounded on our calculation. ISTAT's table prints an average annual change of 10.7% for Poland, a rate its own 2014 and 2024 figures do not reproduce as compound growth, so this article does not use it.
Eurostat's series, which matches ISTAT for 2024, shows the path year by year. Polish nights in Italy were 6,203,982 in 2019, fell to 1,973,302 in 2020, and recovered to 5,733,275 in 2022. They reached 7,816,075 in 2023 and 9,401,226 in 2024. On our calculation that is a rise of 20.3% in 2024, against 8.4% for all foreign nights, and 51.5% over 2019, against 15.1%. Poland's share of Italy's foreign nights rose from 2.81% in 2019 to 3.70% in 2024.
Eurostat's 2025 figure is 13,027,925 nights. It cannot be read as growth. From 2025 Italy's data include private non-business rentals for the first time, and Eurostat's table carries no break flag. The 2024 figure has not been restated on the new basis. Setting the two years side by side gives a rise of almost 39%, which mixes a real change with a change in what is counted. The same break affects every market, as our article on Italy versus Spain in tourism nights explains. On the new basis, Poland held 4.32% of Italy's foreign nights in 2025. Levels within one year can still be compared, because every market is on the same basis. In 2025 Polish nights exceeded those of residents of Austria (11.35 million) and Spain (9.13 million), and trailed the Netherlands (13.14 million) by about 110,000 nights, on Eurostat's figures.
The Bank's survey and the accommodation series disagree on the trend. Dividing the Bank's overnight spending by its spending per night gives about 10.9 million Polish nights in 2023 and about 11.1 million in 2024, a rise of about 1.4%. Eurostat's registered nights rose 20.3% over the same year. The two measure different things. The Bank counts every night, including stays with friends, family and in second homes, and its method changed in 2025. From February 2025 the Bank took over the grossing-up of its sample data, which the companies running the border interviews and counts had done before. The Bank says its main totals are in line with earlier years and that some detailed breakdowns differ. Neither figure is wrong, and neither should be used to check the other. For 2025 the implied Bank figure is about 10.2 million, 8.0% lower than in 2024, and Eurostat has no comparable figure.
Of the five Mediterranean destinations checked, Italy leads for Polish travelers. Table 2 sets Polish nights in Italy against four other Mediterranean destinations in the same Eurostat dataset. Italy had the most Polish nights of the five in 2023, 2024 and 2025. Its 20.3% rise in 2024 was also the largest of the five, ahead of Portugal at 19.3% and Spain at 18.2%. The CBOS survey points the same way. In 2024, 29% of adult Poles took a holiday abroad with at least one night, the highest share since CBOS began asking in 2010. Among those who spent at least two days abroad on holiday, 19% visited Italy, ahead of Greece at 13% and Spain and Turkey at 12% each. That share rests on 282 respondents, and CBOS puts visitors to Italy at about 5% of all Polish adults. The survey counts people who went. It does not measure nights or spending.
| Destination | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | Change 2023-24 (%) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Italy | 7,816,075 | 9,401,226 | 13,027,925 | 20.3 |
| Spain | 6,569,362 | 7,762,370 | 8,815,052 | 18.2 |
| Croatia | 6,359,261 | 6,787,131 | 7,024,578 | 6.7 |
| Greece | 5,334,785 | 6,008,293 | 6,091,681 | 12.6 |
| Portugal | 1,190,537 | 1,420,814 | 1,581,721 | 19.3 |
The air link grew 32.2% to 6.8 million passengers
ENAC's traffic report for 2025 gives the clearest signal of growth. Flights between Poland and Italy carried 6.8 million passengers, up 32.2%. ENAC calls it the largest percentage growth in the EU group. Poland's share of Italy's EU air traffic rose 1.4 points to 6.9%, putting it fourth among EU partner countries after Spain, France and Germany. On page 16 the same report rounds the figure to 7 million and 4% of all international traffic, which places Poland fifth among all foreign countries, after Spain, the UK, France and Germany.
That figure counts airport passengers. Each arrival and departure counts once at the Italian airport, so a Polish visitor on a return trip counts twice. Italians flying to Poland count too, as do travelers of any other nationality on those flights. ENAC publishes no route-level Polish figures among its top EU routes. The rise of 32.2% implies a 2024 base of about 5.1 million passengers on our calculation.
Low-cost airlines dominate Italian air travel in general. ENAC reports that they carried 63% of all passengers at Italian airports in 2025, the same share as in 2024. ENAC does not publish the low-cost share on Polish routes, so this article does not assume one. National airport totals and the low-cost share are covered in our report on Italy's airports in 2025.
The Bank of Italy's published tables give no Polish breakdown by means of transport or by region visited. The air and survey figures therefore cannot be combined into a share of Polish visitors who flew. A rise of 32.2% in air passengers and a rise of 0.8% in Polish trips in the same year can both be true. One counts seats filled in both directions, the other counts Polish residents crossing the border by any means.
What the Pisa +75.6% measures
The Pisa figure comes from the city's tourism observatory, in a report titled Il mercato turistico del 2025 that is built on Regione Toscana data. The report prints no publication date. Its 2025 figures are provisional and, in its own words, awaiting validation by ISTAT.
In the Comune di Pisa, arrivals rose from 984,572 in 2024 to 1,021,421 in 2025, up 3.7%. Nights rose from 2,189,112 to 2,248,117, up 2.7%. Foreign visitors accounted for 61.1% of nights. Among foreign markets, Germany held 11.7% of foreign nights (+1.3%), the UK 11.1% (+7.9%) and Poland 8.8% (+75.6%). The report calls the Polish increase exceptional and says it was the largest absolute rise of any market, at about 52,000 nights. Romania (+46.6%) and China (+28.7%) also grew fast from smaller shares, and France fell 6.6%.
So the +75.6% describes one market in one comune. The report gives no absolute Polish figures. On our calculation from the 8.8% share, Polish visitors spent about 120,800 nights in Pisa in 2025, against about 68,800 in 2024. That is about 5.4% of all nights in the city. It is also under 1% of the 13.03 million Polish nights Eurostat records for Italy as a whole, a cross-series comparison that is only indicative. Polish visitors stayed 2.5 nights on average, according to the report.
The rise changed Pisa's market order. On our calculation from the published shares and changes, Polish nights were about 5.4% of Pisa's foreign nights in 2024, behind Germany, the UK and France, and level with Spain within rounding (about 68,800 Polish nights against about 67,300 Spanish). In 2025 Poland passed France, whose nights fell 6.6%, to become the third foreign market behind Germany and the UK. These 2024 positions are derived from rounded shares, so no exact 2024 rank is given here. The report itself names Poland among the leading foreign markets for 2025 and gives no 2024 rank.
The same report covers the coast. On the Litorale Pisano, Poland was the second foreign market with 9.3% of foreign nights, up 73.2%. That is a separate geography and the two figures should not be added.
One detail in the report matters for reading the Polish figure. Its accommodation table includes tourist rentals in both years, so the totals are on a consistent footing. Rentals, however, account for the whole of Pisa's growth. Rental nights rose from 327,162 to 436,228, up 33.3% on our calculation, while hotel and other extra-hotel nights fell from 1,861,950 to 1,811,889, down 2.7%. Rental registration in Italy changed in 2025 with the national CIN code, explained in our article on CIN codes and rental rules. The report does not split Polish nights by accommodation type. Whether part of the Polish rise reflects better reporting by rentals cannot be tested from the published tables.
What lines up between low-cost routes and Polish nights, and what is missing
The route history is documented. Katowice Airport announced on 14 November 2024 that Wizz Air would fly to Pisa from 2 June 2025, three times a week. Wizz Air started Pisa to Warsaw on 1 April 2025, also three times a week, on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, with fares from €29.99, according to Italiavola's report of the launch on 2 April 2025. In that report, Toscana Aeroporti, which runs Pisa airport, called Poland a strategic and fast-growing market. Ryanair announced on 14 October 2025 that Warsaw would be one of two new routes from Pisa for winter 2025, without naming the Warsaw airport or the frequency.
The timing lines up only in part. The Wizz Air routes began in April and June 2025, so they cannot account for Polish nights in January to March. Ryanair's Warsaw route was announced in October for the winter season, which begins at the end of that month. The Pisa report gives no monthly Polish figures, so the rise cannot be matched against the route start dates. Whether any other Pisa to Poland route operated in 2024 was not established in the sources read.
The missing piece is the passengers. Pisa airport handled just under 6.0 million passengers in 2025, up 7.8%, according to Toscana Aeroporti's release of 8 January 2026, with 74.7% on international routes. The Pisa tourism report gives 5.958 million, and Assaeroporti's table, as republished by Italiavola, gives 5,977,227. None of these sources gives a split by nationality, by country of origin or by airline. Toscana Aeroporti's traffic release of 8 January 2026 does not mention Poland. Neither does the Pisa tourism report, which mentions no airline at all.
Other explanations are open. Air traffic between Poland and Italy rose across the country, by 32.2% on ENAC's count of all nationalities, although Polish overnight trips in the Bank of Italy survey fell 2.1%. Pisa's foreign nights rose 6.7% overall, and several smaller markets grew fast. The base was small, at about 69,000 nights. Rental reporting may have improved. Polish visitors can also reach Pisa by flying into other Italian airports and continuing by train or road. The route launches may have contributed to the rise. The published data can neither confirm nor rule that out.
Where else Polish growth shows up
Polish growth is visible in other regional reports, each on its own basis. Two figures from earlier articles in this series show it in Sardinia and on Lake Garda. They were not reopened for this article. They give context for Pisa and should not be compared with it or summed.
The claims that need a unit
Three figures about Polish visitors and Pisa need their unit stated. The Pisa percentage is a Polish figure for one comune. Booking-platform data are company figures. Airport totals for Pisa come in three versions. The panel below sets out each claim, its source and what the evidence shows. One of the claims is ours: the planning title for this article, dated 28 October 2026, overstated what the Pisa figure shows.
What this means for travelers, businesses and analysts
Travelers from Poland gained direct routes to Pisa in 2025, when Wizz Air launched flights from Warsaw and Katowice and Ryanair announced a Warsaw route for the winter; current schedules were not checked for this article. Poland-Italy flights carried 32.2% more passengers in 2025. Pisa's Galileo Galilei airport handled about 6 million passengers that year and sits a few minutes from Pisa Centrale, with trains on to Florence and Lucca. Pisa is not crowded by Polish visitors in any measured sense. They accounted for about 5% of the city's nights in 2025 on our calculation, and German and British visitors each still held a larger share of foreign nights. The thing most visitors miss is how short Pisa stays are. The average visitor stayed 2.2 nights in 2025 on the city's figures, and Polish visitors 2.5, so the city works as a base for the coast and Lucca as much as a stop for the tower. Our Pisa travel guide covers the airport shuttle, where to stay and day trips.
Tourism businesses and investors are looking at a market whose registered nights (2024) and air traffic (2025) grew fast while spending stayed flat. Polish spending in Italy was flat at €1,299 million in 2025, and stays shortened to 4.6 nights, while spending per night rose to €125.5. Registered Polish nights rose 20.3% in 2024, more than twice the foreign average. The binding constraint for anyone planning on Pisa is evidence. The +75.6% is provisional, sits on a base of about 69,000 nights, and arrived in a year when all of Pisa's net growth came from rentals. Anyone underwriting a Polish-led demand story at Pisa should not treat the route launches as its proven cause. A published nationality split for Pisa airport, monthly Polish nights in Pisa, or ISTAT's validated 2025 figures would change this assessment.
Journalists and analysts should name the unit with every Polish figure. The safe citations are €1,299 million of Bank of Italy spending in 2025, tenth of ten countries; 2.7 million trips including same-day visits, 2.2 million with a night; €125.5 per night; 9,401,226 registered nights in 2024, eighth among foreign markets; ENAC's 6.8 million passengers, up 32.2%; and Polish nights in the Comune di Pisa up 75.6% in 2025, provisional. Do not call the 75.6% a figure for Pisa as a whole, which grew 2.7%. Do not write that low-cost flights drove Polish growth in Pisa, because no source measures who was on the flights. Do not compare Eurostat's 13.03 million nights in 2025 with 2024. This article adds another source-market case to the series' running finding: the official counts describe the market's size in four incompatible units, and none links visitors to how they travel or which airport they use.
Data & sources
Period covered: 2019 to 2025 (annual official data; ISTAT comparison with 2014; route announcements from November 2024)
- Banca d'Italia, Indagine sul turismo internazionale, Statistiche (26 June 2026) · Border survey of international travelers. Polish spending, overnight spending, spending per night, trips, overnight trips, average trip length, personal-trip and holiday spending for 2023-2025 (Tables 3, 4 and 6); ten-country ranking by 2025 spending; all-foreign totals. Accessed 3 Nov 2026.
- Eurostat, nights spent at tourist accommodation establishments by country of residence (tour_occ_ninraw) · Nights in registered accommodation by residents of Poland in Italy, 2019-2025, and in Spain, Croatia, Greece and Portugal, 2023-2025 (updated 12 October 2026, no status flags). Italy's 2025 figure includes private non-business rentals for the first time, without a break flag. Accessed 3 Nov 2026.
- ISTAT, Statistica Today, Il movimento turistico in Italia, anno 2024 (9 March 2026) · Nights by country of residence in registered accommodation, 2014 and 2024 (Prospetto 6): Poland 9,401,226 nights in 2024, 3.7% of foreign nights, eighth (eleventh in 2014). Old basis, private non-business rentals excluded. Accessed 3 Nov 2026.
- ENAC, Dati di traffico 2025, version 0.7 · Italian civil aviation authority traffic report. Poland-Italy passengers 6.8 million, +32.2%, 6.9% of EU traffic (pp. 7 and 35; rounded to 7 million and 4% of international on p. 16); low-cost carriers 63% of all passengers (p. 15). Accessed 3 Nov 2026.
- Comune di Pisa, Osservatorio Turistico della Città di Pisa, Il mercato turistico del 2025 · Provisional 2025 arrivals and nights for the Comune di Pisa and the Litorale Pisano, by foreign market and accommodation type, prepared by CST on Regione Toscana data; Polish share of foreign nights 8.8%, +75.6%; airport passengers 5.958 million. No publication date printed. Accessed 3 Nov 2026.
- Toscana Aeroporti, 2025 traffic release (8 January 2026) · Operator release for Pisa and Florence airports: Pisa just under 6.0 million passengers in 2025, +7.8%, 74.7% international. No nationality or airline split. Published on a press-release host. Accessed 3 Nov 2026.
- Italiavola, Wizz Air inaugura la nuova rotta Pisa-Varsavia (2 April 2025), with the Ryanair and Katowice Airport route announcements · Wizz Air Pisa-Warsaw from 1 April 2025, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, fares from €29.99; Toscana Aeroporti calls Poland a strategic and fast-growing market. Also used: Ryanair's winter 2025 Pisa schedule (14 October 2025; 37 routes, new Warsaw and Amman services) and Katowice Airport's news of 14 November 2024 (Katowice-Pisa from 2 June 2025, three times a week). Accessed 3 Nov 2026.
- CBOS, Komunikat z badań 14/2025, Wyjazdy turystyczne Polaków w 2024 roku i plany na rok 2025 · Survey of 972 Polish adults (fieldwork 9-19 January 2025): 29% took a leisure trip abroad with at least one night in 2024, the highest since the question began in 2010; Italy the most visited foreign destination, by 19% of the 282 who spent at least two days abroad on holiday. Accessed 3 Nov 2026.
Methodology
Sources used: Banca d'Italia, Indagine sul turismo internazionale, Statistiche (26 June 2026), Tables 3, 4 and 6; Eurostat tour_occ_ninraw (updated 12 October 2026) for Polish residents' nights in Italy, Spain, Croatia, Greece and Portugal; ISTAT, Statistica Today on 2024 (9 March 2026), Prospetto 6; ENAC, Dati di traffico 2025, version 0.7, pages 7, 15, 16 and 35; the Comune di Pisa tourism observatory's report on 2025, prepared by CST on Regione Toscana data; Toscana Aeroporti's release of 8 January 2026; Italiavola's report of 2 April 2025 on the Wizz Air Pisa-Warsaw launch, Katowice Airport's news item of 14 November 2024 and Ryanair's release of 14 October 2025; CBOS Komunikat 14/2025. Reused from earlier articles in this series and not reopened: Eurostat foreign-nights totals for Italy (2019, 2024, 2025) and 2025 nights for residents of the Netherlands, Austria and Spain, Assaeroporti's 2025 Pisa figure as republished by Italiavola, the Sardinia regional observatory's Polish figure, and the Verona Chamber of Commerce's Lake Garda figure. Kiwi.com data are cited as reported by Rzeczpospolita on 29 January 2026; the company's own data were not available.
Limitations: (1) The four official series use different units and scopes and cannot be combined or divided. (2) Italy's 2025 accommodation data add private non-business rentals with no break flag and no 2024 restatement, so 2024-25 change is unknown. (3) No source gives passenger nationality at any Italian airport, so air traffic cannot be linked to visitors. (4) The Pisa figures are provisional, undated and published as shares; absolute Polish nights are our estimate from a rounded share. (5) Pisa's net growth came entirely from tourist rentals, and the Polish figure is not split by accommodation type, so a reporting effect cannot be excluded. (6) Bank of Italy trip counts are rounded to 0.1 million, so derived same-day trips carry a margin of about 0.1 million; from February 2025 the Bank took over the grossing-up of its sample data, and it reports that main totals are in line with earlier years while some detailed breakdowns differ. (7) Figures were taken from each document's published text and checked by arithmetic. (8) Coverage changes in the four comparator countries' 2025 data were not checked.
Handling of contested and unverified claims: each contested figure is reported with both values, and neither is favoured where the sources measure different things. The 75.6% figure is described by its scope every time it appears, and the link between low-cost routes and Polish nights is reported as timing only. Company and press figures are labelled as such. Opened directly for this article: the Bank of Italy tables (including the 2025 spending changes for the UK, France, the US and Germany), Eurostat API tables, the ISTAT release, the ENAC report, the Comune di Pisa report, the Toscana Aeroporti release, the Italiavola launch report, the Katowice Airport and Ryanair pages and the CBOS report. Not opened: Assaeroporti's own 2025 table, ISTAT's 2025 nationality tables, the Polish Tourist Organisation's Italy market presentation (the file could not be retrieved), Poland's GUS outbound data, the Kiwi.com source data and any Pisa airport data by nationality, which do not appear to exist.
Notes on the data
(1) What does not exist: no source publishes the nationality or country of residence of passengers at Pisa airport or any Italian airport; ENAC has no route-level Polish figures; no source gives the Polish share of low-cost passengers or the load on Pisa-Poland routes. The Comune di Pisa report gives Polish nights only as a share and a percentage change, not as an absolute figure, and does not split them by month or accommodation type. The Bank of Italy publishes no Polish nights total and no Polish split by region, transport mode or accommodation. ISTAT's 2025 figures by nationality were not found, and Polish nights in Italy on a like-for-like 2024-25 basis do not exist. We used the Bank of Italy survey for trips and spending, ISTAT and Eurostat for registered nights, ENAC for air passengers, CBOS for Polish travel habits and the Comune di Pisa report for Pisa. (2) Contested figures: Polish nights in 2024 were up 20.3% in Eurostat's registered-accommodation series and up about 1.4% in nights implied by the Bank of Italy survey (our calculation); the two measure different things and neither is favoured. Polish nights in 2024 were 9,401,226 in Eurostat and ISTAT and about 11.1 million implied by the Bank (our calculation, all overnight stays including friends and family). Pisa airport carried 5.958 million passengers in 2025 (+7.7%, Comune di Pisa), just under 6.0 million (+7.8%, Toscana Aeroporti) or 5,977,227 (+7.8%, Assaeroporti via Italiavola); each holds for its source. ISTAT prints an average annual change of 10.7% for Polish nights in 2014-24, which its own 2014 and 2024 figures do not reproduce as compound growth (8.1% a year, our calculation); we use the compound rate. (3) Claims that failed verification: the planning title for this article in our own insights plan (item I31, 28 October 2026) read as if the 75.6% applied to Pisa as a whole and called Poland the low-cost market behind it; the figure covers Polish nights in the Comune di Pisa only (Pisa overall +2.7%), and no source supports the causal link. Kiwi.com's 126% rise for Pisa (Rzeczpospolita, 29 January 2026) is company booking data with an unclear nationality scope. "Fastest-growing market" holds only for ENAC air passengers among EU countries in 2025. (4) Derived figures, all our calculations: Polish nights growth 2019-24 and 2023-24, the compound annual rate for 2014-24 and the foreign comparisons; Polish shares of foreign nights; comparator-country changes; spending per night changes and the gap to the all-foreign average; spending per trip and per overnight trip; same-day trips (margin about 0.1 million); the holiday share and the residual including business; implied Bank nights; the ENAC 2024 base; Polish nights in Pisa (about 120,800 and 68,800, from the rounded 8.8% share), their share of Pisa and of Italy's Polish nights; Pisa's 2024 market order (Poland about 5.4% of foreign nights, behind France and level with Spain within rounding) from rounded shares; the gap to Dutch nights in 2025; the Pisa rental and non-rental changes. (5) Self-reported and company figures: the Bank of Italy survey and CBOS rest on interviews; route dates and fares come from airline and airport announcements, the Wizz Air details as reported by Italiavola; Kiwi.com data are a company's bookings reported by a newspaper. Regional figures for Sardinia and Lake Garda are reused from earlier articles in this series and were not reopened.
Frequently asked questions
How many Polish tourists visit Italy each year?
The Bank of Italy counted 2.7 million trips to Italy by residents of Poland in 2025, up 0.8%, including same-day visits. Of those, 2.2 million trips included at least one night. The figures count trips, so a person who visits twice counts twice. Source: Bank of Italy, Indagine sul turismo internazionale, Table 4, June 2026.
How much do Polish tourists spend in Italy?
Polish visitors spent 1,299 million euros in Italy in 2025, up 0.2% on 2024 and 2.3% of all foreign spending, according to the Bank of Italy's international tourism survey (Table 3). Poland ranks tenth among the ten countries in that table. Spending per night was 125.5 euros, ninth of the ten, against 139.1 euros for all foreign visitors.
How many nights do Polish visitors spend in Italian hotels and rentals?
ISTAT counted 9,401,226 nights by residents of Poland in registered accommodation in 2024, 3.7% of foreign nights, making Poland the eighth foreign market (Statistica Today, 9 March 2026). Eurostat gives 13,027,925 nights for 2025, but that year includes private non-business rentals for the first time and cannot be compared with 2024.
Is Italy the most popular destination for Polish travelers?
On two measures, yes. In the CBOS survey published in February 2025, 19% of Poles who spent at least two days abroad on holiday in 2024 visited Italy, ahead of Greece (13%), Spain and Turkey (12% each). In Eurostat's accommodation data, Italy had more Polish nights in 2023, 2024 and 2025 than Spain, Croatia, Greece or Portugal.
Why did Polish tourism in Pisa grow 75.6%?
The Comune di Pisa's tourism report gives the rise, about 52,000 more Polish nights in 2025, but no reason. Wizz Air opened routes from Pisa to Warsaw on 1 April 2025 and to Katowice on 2 June 2025, and Ryanair added Warsaw for winter 2025. No source gives the nationality of passengers at Pisa airport, so the routes cannot be shown to have caused the rise. The figure is provisional.
Did tourism in Pisa grow 75.6% in 2025?
No. The 75.6% applies to Polish visitors only. All nights in the Comune di Pisa rose 2.7%, from 2,189,112 in 2024 to 2,248,117 in 2025, and arrivals rose 3.7%, according to the city's provisional 2025 tourism report.
Which airlines fly between Poland and Pisa?
Wizz Air launched Pisa to Warsaw on 1 April 2025 and Pisa to Katowice on 2 June 2025, each three times a week at launch, according to Italiavola's report of the Warsaw launch and Katowice Airport. Ryanair announced Pisa to Warsaw for winter 2025 on 14 October 2025. Current service was not checked for this article, and schedules change by season, so check timetables before booking.
How busy is Pisa airport?
Pisa airport handled just under 6.0 million passengers in 2025, up 7.8%, with 74.7% on international routes, according to Toscana Aeroporti's release of 8 January 2026. Assaeroporti's table, as republished by Italiavola, gives 5,977,227, and the Comune di Pisa report gives 5.958 million. No source splits Pisa passengers by nationality.
How many passengers fly between Poland and Italy?
ENAC counted 6.8 million passengers on flights between Poland and Italy in 2025, up 32.2%, the largest percentage growth among Italy's EU partner countries and 6.9% of Italy's EU air traffic. The figure counts arrivals and departures of all nationalities, so it is not a count of Polish visitors.