Sardinia tourism statistics 2025: 21.9 million nights, +16% like for like, and why ISTAT's +39% is not like for like

Three counts of Sardinia's tourism, and only one is like for like

Sardinia's tourism in 2025 is described by three official sources, each on its own basis. They should never be mixed in one comparison.

The first is the regional observatory. Its count covers three categories of accommodation: hotels, what Italian statistics call complementary accommodation (campsites, holiday villages, holiday homes run as businesses, agritourism, guest rooms), and private accommodation let to tourists. The observatory has counted private rentals for several years, so its 2025 and 2024 figures sit on the same basis. The Region's press release of 23 July 2026 makes this point directly: the three categories, in our translation, "have always been counted" ("da sempre sono computate"). On that basis, Sardinia's nights rose 15.95% in 2025 and 34.1% on 2023's 16,343,774 (our arithmetic; the Region gives 34.2%).

The observatory's data are not a survey. Every hotel, campsite and registered rental is obliged to send monthly guest movements to ROSS1000-SIRED under regional law 16 of 2017, following the same definitions as ISTAT's survey of guests in accommodation establishments. The observatory publishes the share of obliged facilities that actually report, and it warns that its numbers may differ from ISTAT's for the same period and can change as late or corrected submissions arrive. Its 2024 total moved from 18,907,165 in the 2024 report to 18,906,479 in the 2025 report for that reason, a revision of 686 nights.

In absolute terms the 2025 rise was 3,016,286 nights and 728,161 arrivals (our arithmetic). Arrivals grew slightly faster than nights, so the average stay edged down from 4.26 to 4.24 nights. For comparison, Sicily's official 2024 figures, on a narrower basis without rentals, give 2.99 nights per arrival (Regione Siciliana, Rapporto 2024, our arithmetic).

The second is ISTAT. Its report on 2024 tourism, Statistica Today of 9 March 2026, counts 15,610,251 nights in Sardinia in 2024, up 9.9% on 2023 and 3.4% of the national total. Of those, 7,633,588 were spent by Italian residents and 7,976,663 by non-residents. That count covers hotels and business-run extra-hotel accommodation. It explicitly leaves out non-business private rentals, which ISTAT published separately for 2024 for the first time and only for 92 of Italy's 107 provinces.

For 2025, ISTAT changed its basis. The Region's release and the news agency ANSA, both on 23 July 2026, report ISTAT's regional percentages for 2025: Sardinia's nights up 39.14% and arrivals up 32.54%, ahead of Sicily (+34.61%) and Puglia (+26.73%), against +14.87% for Italy. Both say that from 2025 ISTAT counts occasional private rentals, which it did not before. We did not locate the ISTAT publication that carries these regional figures, and neither source gives an absolute ISTAT number for Sardinia in 2025.

The third is the Bank of Italy. Its annual report on the Sardinian economy, published in June 2026 with data to 29 May 2026, says nights rose 11.5% in 2025, with foreign nights up 16.9% and Italian nights up 5.8%, and arrivals up 12.3%. It credits the Regione Autonoma della Sardegna and calls the 2025 data provisional. It does not say whether rentals are included.

The three numbers, +15.95%, +39.14% and +11.5%, are not three verdicts on the same year. The observatory's figure is the only one that compares 2025 with 2024 on a stated, unchanged basis. That is why this report uses it as the main series.

Why ISTAT's +39% is a basis break, not a boom

The arithmetic shows how much of ISTAT's jump comes from the change of basis. Remove non-business private rentals from the observatory's count and its 2024 total falls to 15,657,006 nights (our arithmetic: 18,906,479 minus 3,249,473). ISTAT's 2024 figure without rentals is 15,610,251. The two differ by 46,755 nights, about 0.3%. On that evidence the observatory's count without rentals and ISTAT's 2024 count are close to the same thing.

Seen the other way, the observatory's 2024 total exceeds ISTAT's by 3,296,228 nights (our arithmetic), and the observatory's own figure for non-business rentals in 2024 is 3,249,473. Rentals account for almost all of the gap. This is our derivation from two documents, not a reconciliation either body has published.

Now apply ISTAT's +39.14% to its 2024 figure. The result is about 21.72 million nights (our arithmetic), close to the observatory's 21.92 million for 2025, which includes rentals. That is consistent with an ISTAT 2025 count that includes rentals measured against a 2024 count that did not. It is an inference: we found no ISTAT absolute figure to check it against.

The same break affects every region. Italy's national 2025 total includes non-business private rentals and the 2024 total does not, as covered in our analyses of Italy versus Spain on tourism nights and the Italy tourism 2026 record watch. Regions with many private rentals will show larger jumps. Sicily's +34.61% on the same ISTAT ranking carries the same caveat; our report on Sicily's 2025 tourism statistics sets out that island's own three counts. "Sardinia grew fastest in Italy" is true only on a comparison that mixes bases, and no like-for-like regional ranking for 2025 was found.

The Bank of Italy's +11.5% is harder to place. The observatory's count without non-business rentals grew 11.53% in 2025 (our arithmetic: 17,462,570 against 15,657,006). That matches the Bank's figure to one decimal place. Arrivals on the same basis rose 12.6% (4,364,403 against 3,874,699), against the Bank's 12.3%, so the match is not exact on every measure. It may mean the Bank's provisional data leave rentals out, or it may be a coincidence of an earlier data cut. The Bank does not say, and we have not been able to confirm either reading.

Private rentals: 40% of the gain, and part of it may be paperwork

Non-business private rentals, the category ISTAT has just started counting, are the fastest-growing part of Sardinia's market. The observatory's 2025 report gives them 4,460,195 nights and 805,690 arrivals, against 3,249,473 nights in 2024. The Region puts the rise at 37.3%, and 93.3% on 2023. Rentals took 20.3% of all nights in 2025, up from 17.2% in 2024, and their stays averaged about 5.5 nights per arrival, among the longest, behind holiday homes and apartments (5.71) and holiday villages (5.70) (all our arithmetic from the observatory's figures).

Rentals supplied 1,210,722 of the 3,016,286 extra nights recorded in 2025, about 40% of the gain (our arithmetic). Hotels grew more slowly: the observatory gives hotel nights of 11,015,596, up 8.02%, and the Region gives other extra-hotel nights of 6,446,974, up 18%. Hotels still held 50.2% of all nights (our arithmetic).

Two cautions apply to the rental figures. First, part of the rise may be better reporting rather than more guests. ANSA's report of 23 July 2026 says the growth is due in part to the "emergence" of previously undeclared activity, pushed by the obligation to hold Italy's national rental code, the CIN. That explanation is not in the observatory's report, and no source quantifies it. How the CIN works, and how many rentals are registered nationally, is covered in our report on Italy's rental rules and the CIN code.

Second, coverage is incomplete. The observatory measures how many of the facilities obliged to report actually sent data. For 2025 the rate was 86.46% for hotels, 71.04% for complementary accommodation and 43.84% for private rentals, 62.54% overall. For 2024 the rental rate was 43.98%, so the share reporting barely moved. The report does not say that missing facilities are estimated, and the reported totals appear to be what was transmitted. If so, the true number of rental nights is likely higher than 4.46 million, though some non-reporting facilities may have had no guests, and the size of the reporting universe, which the CIN may have enlarged, is not published.

The rental stock is large. The Bank of Italy reports 47,217 properties used for tourist rentals at the start of the second quarter of 2026, from Ministry of Tourism data, a category that also includes guest rooms, B&Bs and holiday homes, so it is broader than the observatory's non-business rental line. The properties are equal to 96% of Sardinia's tourist accommodation facilities against 91% nationally. That is a count of properties, not beds or nights, and it cannot be divided into the observatory's nights.

Foreigners now take 55.5% of the nights

Foreign visitors drove the 2025 growth. On the observatory's count they spent 12,170,692 nights, up 21.49%, and made 2,891,413 arrivals, up 21.75%. Italians spent 9,752,073 nights, up 9.71%. Foreigners therefore took 55.5% of nights in 2025 (our arithmetic), up from 53% in 2024 in the observatory's 2024 report, and from about half in 2023.

Germany is by far the largest foreign market. German visitors spent 3,262,084 nights in 2025, up 19.76%, 26.8% of foreign nights (our arithmetic). France followed with 1,608,906 nights and Switzerland with 1,042,919. Ranked by arrivals, the top ten foreign markets were Germany, France, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, Spain, Poland, the Netherlands, the United States, Austria and Belgium.

British visitors made 165,516 arrivals and spent 834,973 nights in 2025, up 16.97%, with an average stay of about 5.0 nights (our arithmetic). That is 6.9% of Sardinia's foreign nights. National figures for the UK market, which the Bank of Italy measures in trips and spending, are in our report on British tourists in Italy.

The American market is smaller and grew 33.34%, second only to Poland (+36.26%) among the top ten foreign markets. US visitors made 122,231 arrivals and spent 398,607 nights in 2025, about 3.3% of foreign nights (our arithmetic). The regional tourism assessor, Franco Cuccureddu, said American tourists had grown 80%. The Region's release quotes him as saying 80% over two years. On the observatory's reports, US nights rose from 218,727 in 2023 to 398,607 in 2025, about 82% (our arithmetic across the 2024 and 2025 reports); arrivals rose about 77%. Cuccureddu also called the US Sardinia's ninth market: it is ninth by nights and eighth by arrivals on the observatory's table. The national picture for American visitors is in our report on American tourists in Italy in 2026.

One published version of the foreign share is reversed. The Region's release of 23 July 2026 quotes the assessor as saying the split moved to 56% Italian and 44% foreign, while its own text says foreigners now make up 56%. Italpress, on 26 July 2026, carried the same quote while its own text gave the foreign majority. The observatory's figures settle it: foreigners took 55.5% of nights.

Gallura holds over a third of the nights, and Alghero leads the towns

The observatory's 2025 report uses a new structure of eight zones, matching the provinces created under the latest regional reform. The 2024 report used the old five provinces, so zone figures cannot be compared by name with earlier years, although the 2025 report gives its own percentage changes.

Gallura Nord-Est Sardegna, the zone around Olbia, Arzachena and the Costa Smeralda, recorded 7,696,261 nights in 2025, up 11.52%. That is 35.1% of the island's total (our arithmetic). The metropolitan city of Cagliari followed with 5,170,269 nights (23.6%), and the metropolitan city of Sassari, which includes Alghero, with 3,297,115 (15.0%). Ogliastra grew fastest (+28.05%), followed by Medio Campidano (+22.04%, from a small base) and Nuoro (+21.40%).

By town, Alghero recorded the most nights in 2025, 1,813,687, up 14.09%. Arzachena followed with 1,352,148 and Olbia with 1,161,262, then Cagliari with 1,123,435. Tortolì, the main town of Ogliastra, grew fastest among the top ten, up 44.12% to 890,584 nights. These are municipal figures on the observatory's basis, including rentals.

Four months hold 79% of the year

Sardinia's tourism remains heavily seasonal. On the observatory's monthly figures for 2025, June to September held 17,302,459 nights, 78.9% of the year (our arithmetic). August alone recorded 5,456,409 nights, 24.9% of the total. January recorded 147,232.

The five months from November to March added up to 877,925 nights, 4.0% of the year (our arithmetic from the monthly table; the Region's release gives the same 877,925 and "4%"). The Region says that low season grew 10.6% on 2024 and the mid-season months of April, May, September and October 11.3%, against 18.9% for the high season of June to August. Growth in 2025 therefore made the peak more pronounced, not less.

Airports and ports: 11.2 million passengers is not 11.2 million visitors

Sardinia's three main airports handled 11,186,498 passengers in 2025, on our sum of Assaeroporti's figures as republished by Italiavola & Travel on 4 February 2026: Cagliari 5,254,433 (+1.8%), Olbia 4,161,572 (+7.2%) and Alghero 1,770,493 (+9.9%). Back-calculated from those percentages, the three grew about 5.0% together (our arithmetic), which matches the Bank of Italy's +5.0% for Sardinian airport traffic in 2025. Italy's airports handled 230,081,011 passengers on the same Assaeroporti basis; the national picture is in our report on Italy's airport passenger traffic in 2025.

Airport passengers are not visitors. Each arrival and each departure counts, so a round trip counts twice, and Sardinians flying to the mainland are counted too. With 1,562,381 residents at 31 December 2024 (ISTAT permanent census, regional brief of April 2026), Sardinia's airports handled about 7.2 passengers per resident in 2025 (our arithmetic, mixing a 2025 traffic year with an end-2024 population). That ratio says how busy the airports are relative to the island's size. It is not a count of tourists, and it should not be set beside the observatory's 5,170,093 arrivals.

Fares and routes matter for an island. Italy's competition authority found in a 2025 inquiry that the average one-way fare on routes to and from Sicily or Sardinia was about €70 in 2023; the airline ownership changes behind some of those routes are covered in our report on the ITA Airways and Lufthansa deal.

Sea traffic did not grow. The Bank of Italy reports port passengers down 1.6% in 2025, reflecting a fall at Olbia. The trade site Shipping Italy reported on 4 February 2026 that ferry passengers at the ports of the Sardinian port authority fell 2.5%, to 5,421,275, and cruise passengers 5.3%, to 647,527. Those are press-reported figures from the port authority, whose own release was not opened, and the two percentages cover different scopes. Cruise counts are passenger movements, not people, as explained in our report on Italy's cruise statistics.

2026 so far: airports up, overnight data still press-only

Airport traffic kept growing in 2026. Assaeroporti's statistics page, in its September 2026 report, gives January to September passengers of 4,448,594 at Cagliari (+6.9%), 4,052,623 at Olbia (+11.0%) and 1,623,981 at Alghero (+11.5%). Together that is 10,125,198 passengers (our arithmetic), roughly 9.2% more than a year earlier on figures back-calculated from the rounded percentages; L'Unione Sarda reported +9.25% for the same months from the Region on 15 October 2026. In September alone Olbia grew 15.4%.

ANSA reported on 22 September 2026, from figures presented by Cuccureddu, that passengers rose 8.93% in January to August, with Cagliari up 6.65%, Olbia up 10.2% and Alghero up 12.39%, and foreign passengers up 19.09% against 3.07% for Italians. Those eight-month figures from the Region are now superseded by Assaeroporti's nine-month report.

For overnight stays there is no official 2026 figure yet. L'Unione Sarda reported on 15 October 2026 that nights rose 4.58% to 13.83 million in January to August, citing the assessor at the TTG travel fair without naming the dataset. The Interior Ministry's guest-registration system, Alloggiati Web, showed Sardinia up 8.24% in the first half of 2026 against 4.43% for Italy, according to L'Unione Sarda on 5 July 2026, which called the figures arrivals; the Region's own release described them as nights. These are different systems from the observatory's, and neither can be set against its 2025 total. Speaking in July 2026, as reported by the Swiss agency Keystone-ATS, Cuccureddu said the summer months were close to saturation.

Planning Sardinia holidays with these numbers

Travellers planning Sardinia holidays will meet most other visitors in August and in the north-east. August held a quarter of 2025's nights and Gallura more than a third of the year's total, on the observatory's figures. The months from November to March together held 4% of nights. Olbia's airport grew 11.0% in January to September 2026 and 15.4% in September alone (Assaeroporti). Our Sardinia travel guide covers bases, routes and seasons, and the Sardinia destination page links the island's guides. Rules on access to individual beaches are covered in our report on Italy's capped beaches. Tourist tax rates in Sardinian towns were not checked for this report; the national rules are in our report on Italy's tourist tax in 2026.

Tourism businesses should benchmark against the right series. On the observatory's count, hotels grew about 8% in 2025, while non-business private rentals grew 37.3% and took about 40% of the extra nights. A hotel comparing itself with the headline +15.95% is comparing itself with a total lifted by a fast-growing and partly newly reported rental segment. Foreign demand rose on both the observatory's and the Bank of Italy's counts, led by Germany, with Poland (+36.26%) and the US (+33.34%) growing fastest among the top ten.

Journalists and analysts should name the series with every figure. The 21,922,765 nights is the regional observatory's count for 2025, including private rentals, extracted on 18 June 2026; it is nights, not tourists. The +39.14% is ISTAT's change across a change of basis and is not a like-for-like growth rate. The +11.5% is the Bank of Italy's provisional figure on an unstated basis. The latest ISTAT absolute figure for Sardinia is 15,610,251 nights in 2024, without rentals. Airport passengers are trips through airports, residents included.

The pattern is a familiar one in this series. Sardinia publishes more than most regions: an annual report with a stated basis, eight zones, monthly figures, markets and a coverage rate. What is missing is any measure of how much of the rental boom is new demand and how much is newly declared supply, any estimate for the facilities that do not report, and an ISTAT regional table for 2025 that can be opened and checked.