Key takeaways
- Residents of Spain made 5.8 million trips to Italy in 2025, up 4.7%, and 4.9 million overnight trips, up 7.5%; the Bank of Italy counts trips as border crossings, so a person who visits twice counts twice (Indagine sul turismo internazionale, June 2026).
- Spanish spending in Italy was €3,033 million in 2025, up 0.3% on 2024, the smallest rise among Italy's five largest foreign markets, while the average Spanish overnight stay fell from 6.4 to 5.6 nights (Bank of Italy, Tables 3 and 4).
- The Bank of Italy counted 151,000 Spanish residents who came to Italy because of the Jubilee in 2025 and spent €125 million; that is 11.0% of the 1,376,000 foreign visitors who came for the Holy Year and about 3.1% of Spain's overnight trips to Italy (Doria note, 28 August 2026; 3.1% our calculation).
- Spending by Spanish visitors other than the Jubilee group was about €2,908 million in 2025, 3.8% below the 2024 total, on our arithmetic; the Bank publishes no Spanish detail that would show what else changed, so this is a subtraction and not a measured effect.
- Table 4 of the Bank's Jubilee note gives Spain 3,631,000 overnight travelers and a 4.2% Jubilee share; that total belongs to the United States in Table 3, and Table 3 matches the Bank's main statistics, so the correct share is about 3.1% (our calculation).
- Spanish nights in Italian registered accommodation rose 31.5% to 9,133,365 in 2025 on a new basis that adds private rentals; hotel nights, the closest like-for-like series, rose 8.8%, against 3.5% for all foreign hotel guests (Eurostat; changes our calculation).
- Spain's own resident travel survey, published by Eurostat, counts 2,341,899 trips to Italy in 2025, down 4.6%, and 14,066,061 nights, down 3.6%, which puts Italy first among Spaniards' foreign destinations by nights and second by trips after France.
- Italy-Spain flights carried more than 22.5 million passengers in 2025, up 9.2%, the largest international air market for Italy's airports; the four busiest routes, linking Rome and Milan with Madrid and Barcelona, grew less than 4% each (ENAC, Dati di traffico 2025).
Residents of Spain made 5.8 million trips to Italy in 2025, 4.7% more than in 2024, and spent €3,033 million. That spending was up 0.3%, the smallest rise among the five largest foreign markets. Each Spanish overnight visitor stayed 5.6 nights on average, down from 6.4.
Spending by Spaniards who came for the Jubilee was larger than the whole rise. The Bank of Italy's survey found that 151,000 Spanish residents came to Italy in 2025 because of the Holy Year and would not have come otherwise. They spent €125 million. Spending by every other Spanish visitor came to about €2,908 million, 3.8% below the 2024 total, on our arithmetic. That is a subtraction and not a measured effect. It cannot show what the year would have looked like without the Jubilee, because the Bank publishes no Spanish split of the rest of the market. Spaniards were the second-largest national group among foreign visitors who came for the Jubilee, at 11.0%, behind the United States at 17.1%.
The other counts of Spanish travel to Italy disagree on direction. Spain's own resident travel survey, published by Eurostat, shows trips to Italy down 4.6% in 2025. Italy's registered-accommodation series shows Spanish nights up 31.5%, because it began counting private rentals that year. Italy's civil aviation authority counts more passengers on flights to and from Spain than to any other country, with every nationality included. This article sets out what each count measures. It completes a set with our pieces on French tourists in Italy, German tourists in Italy and British tourists in Italy, and like the UK, Spain has no land border with Italy.
Four counts of one market
The Bank of Italy's Indagine sul turismo internazionale is the main Italian count of trips into the country. Its unit is the trip, which it calls "viaggiatori" and defines as a crossing of the Italian border. A person who enters twice counts twice. The survey covers residents of Spain of any nationality and every type of lodging, including friends, family and owned homes. On that basis Spain supplied 5.8 million of the 92.2 million foreign trips into Italy in 2025, or 6.3%, and 4.9 million of the 61.4 million overnight trips, or 8.0%, both shares by our calculation. Among the ten countries in the Bank's table, Germany, France, Switzerland, the UK and Austria made more trips.
Spain is mostly an overnight market. Total trips minus overnight trips leave about 0.9 million same-day visits in each of 2023, 2024 and 2025, with a margin of about 0.1 million because the Bank rounds its counts. That is about 16% of Spanish trips, against 33% for all foreign visitors and about 47% for France, as our French article found. Same-day visitors from Spain spent about €30 million in 2025, our calculation from the gap between total and overnight spending. The rest of this article deals with the overnight market.
The second count is registered accommodation. ISTAT and Eurostat record each check-in at a hotel, a holiday rental business or a campsite that reports to ISTAT. Stays with friends, in owned homes or in unregistered lets fall outside it. Eurostat's tables, updated on 12 October 2026, show 3,246,364 arrivals and 9,133,365 nights by residents of Spain in Italian registered accommodation in 2025. Each check-in lasted about 2.8 nights, by our calculation.
The third count comes from Spain. INE's resident travel survey, which Eurostat publishes as Spain's tourism demand series, counts trips with at least one night by main destination. It recorded 2,341,899 Spanish trips to Italy in 2025 and 14,066,061 nights, about 6.0 nights per trip by our calculation. A trip that takes in Italy and another country counts once, under its main destination.
The fourth count is airport traffic. ENAC's Dati di traffico 2025 puts traffic between Italy and Spain at more than 22.5 million passengers. Airport passengers count each leg in both directions, and an Italian flying to Madrid counts the same as a Spanish visitor flying to Rome.
These counts belong side by side and never in one calculation. The Bank of Italy publishes no Spanish nights figure. Dividing its overnight spending of €3,003 million by its €110.3 spent per night gives about 27.2 million nights, our derivation. Spain's survey gives 14.07 million. Registered accommodation gives 9.13 million. Each is correct for what it covers. As a rough comparison of scale, and not a reconciliation, the Bank counts about 2.1 times as many Spanish overnight trips as Spain's survey does. Border crossings, main-destination counting, multi-country trips and the age coverage of Spain's survey could each contribute. None of them has been measured.
| Count | Value | Unit | Who is counted | Period | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Trips, all | 5.8 | Trips (border crossings), same-day visits included, millions | Residents of Spain entering Italy, any accommodation, including stays with friends, family and in own homes | 2025 | Bank of Italy, ITI, Table 4 |
| Trips with an overnight stay | 4.9 | Trips with at least one night, millions | As above, overnight trips only | 2025 | Bank of Italy, ITI, Table 4 |
| Spending | 3,033 | Euros spent, € millions | All Spanish trips, same-day visits included | 2025 | Bank of Italy, ITI, Table 3 |
| Arrivals in registered accommodation | 3.25 | Check-ins, millions | Residents of Spain in hotels, holiday rental businesses and campsites reporting to ISTAT; 2025 adds private non-business rentals | 2025 | Eurostat tour_occ_arnraw |
| Nights in registered accommodation | 9.13 | Nights, millions | As above | 2025 | Eurostat tour_occ_ninraw |
| Trips to Italy, Spain's survey | 2.34 | Trips with at least one night, by main destination, millions | Residents of Spain covered by INE's resident travel survey | 2025 | Eurostat tour_dem_ttw (INE) |
| Nights in Italy, Spain's survey | 14.07 | Nights, millions | As above, all accommodation types | 2025 | Eurostat tour_dem_tnw (INE) |
| Airport passengers, Italy-Spain | 22.5 | Passengers, both directions, millions | Everyone on scheduled and charter flights between Italy and Spain, any nationality | 2025 | ENAC, Dati di traffico 2025, v.0.7 |
More trips, shorter stays, flat spending
The Bank of Italy's Spanish series rose fast in 2024 and stalled in 2025. Spending went from €2,440 million in 2023 to €3,023 million in 2024, then €3,033 million in 2025. Trips went from 5.0 million to 5.5 million and 5.8 million. Overnight trips went from 4.1 million to 4.6 million and 4.9 million, up 7.5% in the latest year.
The stay shortened sharply. The average Spanish overnight trip lasted 6.4 nights in 2023 and 2024 and 5.6 in 2025, a fall of 12.7%. All foreign visitors averaged 6.4 nights in 2025, the UK 5.3 and France 4.9. On the Bank's own figures, Spanish nights in Italy fell. Overnight spending divided by spending per night gives about 29.0 million nights in 2024 and 27.2 million in 2025, a fall of about 6.1%, by our calculation. The Bank does not publish that figure, and it carries the rounding of the inputs.
Spending per night rose. Spanish overnight visitors spent €90.8 a night in 2023, €103.1 in 2024 and €110.3 in 2025. That is a rise of 7.0% in the latest year and 21.5% over two years, by our calculation. Spain still has the lowest figure of the ten countries in the Bank's table. It sits about 21% below the all-foreign average of €139.1, behind Poland at €125.5 and France at €132.6.
A Spanish overnight trip cost about €613 in 2025, our calculation from overnight spending and overnight trips. The average for all foreign visitors was about €889. Across all trips, same-day visits included, Spaniards spent about €523 each.
The purpose split shows holidays growing and everything else shrinking. Spending on trips for personal reasons rose 3.2%, to €2,671 million. Within that, holiday spending rose 10.8%, from €1,627 million to €1,803 million. Personal trips other than holidays, which include visits to family, study, health and religion, fell from €961 million to €868 million, about 9.7%, by our calculation. The Bank publishes no Spanish business row. Total spending minus personal-trip spending leaves €362 million in 2025, down from €435 million, our residual. Holidays took 59.4% of Spanish spending in 2025, against 49.7% in 2023, both shares by our calculation.
The Bank of Italy changed how it processes the survey in 2025. Since February 2025 it has expanded the sample itself, a task previously done by the firms that carry out the border interviews and counts. The Bank has said its main aggregates are in line with the historical series but that some detailed breakdowns differ. A country row is a detailed breakdown, so the drop in the Spanish average stay may partly reflect the method. The data cannot separate the two.
| Measure | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | Change 2024-25 (%) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Spending, € millions | 2,440 | 3,023 | 3,033 | 0.3 |
| Spending by overnight visitors, € millions | 2,408 | 2,989 | 3,003 | 0.5 |
| Spending per night, € | 90.8 | 103.1 | 110.3 | 7.0 |
| Trips, millions | 5.0 | 5.5 | 5.8 | 4.7 |
| Overnight trips, millions | 4.1 | 4.6 | 4.9 | 7.5 |
| Average stay, nights | 6.4 | 6.4 | 5.6 | -12.7 |
| Implied nights, millions (our calculation) | 26.5 | 29.0 | 27.2 | -6.1 |
| Spending on personal trips, € millions | 2,122 | 2,588 | 2,671 | 3.2 |
| of which holidays, € millions | 1,212 | 1,627 | 1,803 | 10.8 |
| Residual, total minus personal, € millions | 318 | 435 | 362 | -16.8 |
| Spending by Jubilee travelers, € millions | 125 |
The Jubilee: 151,000 Spaniards who came because of it
The Bank of Italy measured the Jubilee in a note by Claudio Doria of its statistics directorate, published on 28 August 2026. The survey asked foreign visitors whether they had taken part in Jubilee events and whether they would have come to Italy anyway. Those who came because of the Holy Year are the note's Jubilee travelers. There were 1,376,000 of them in 2025, all with at least one night in Italy, and they spent €1,615 million. Another 2,186,000 foreign visitors took part in Jubilee events but would have come anyway. They spent €2,400 million and are counted separately.
Spain's 11.0% belongs to the first group only. The note's wording is that the United States and Spain account for the largest shares of Jubilee travelers, at 17.1% and 11.0%. Spain's 151,000 came ahead of Poland at 111,000, the UK at 106,000 and France at 105,000. The 11.0% is a share of foreign visitors who came because of the Jubilee. It is not a share of all Jubilee participants, of pilgrims or of Spanish visitors to Italy. Our Jubilee 2025 by the numbers explains the three units that the Holy Year produced.
As a share of Spanish travel, the Jubilee group was small. Spain had 4,902,000 overnight travelers in the note's Table 3, which matches the 4.9 million in the Bank's main statistics. The 151,000 Jubilee travelers are about 3.1% of them, by our calculation. Spain's share of Jubilee travelers, 11.0%, was larger than its 8.0% share of all foreign overnight travelers, about 1.4 times as large. The equivalent ratio for the United States is about 2.9.
The note's Table 4 prints different totals and should not be used for this ratio. It gives Spain 3,631,000 overnight travelers and a share of 4.2%. The 3,631,000 is the figure Table 3 gives for the United States, and Table 4 gives the United States Spain's 4,902,000. The same column gives Canada 9,402,000, which is Germany's figure in Table 3 and far above the 1.2 million Canadian trips in the Bank's statistics. Poland, the UK and France do not match Table 3 either. We read both tables in the PDF text and use Table 3, which agrees with the Bank's statistics release.
The Spanish Jubilee group stayed about as long as other Spaniards and spent more. They logged 878,000 nights, about 5.8 nights each, against 5.6 for all Spanish overnight visitors. They spent about €828 per trip and about €142 a night, by our calculation, against about €613 per trip and €110.3 a night for all Spanish overnight visitors. Their €125 million was 4.1% of all Spanish spending in Italy in 2025 and 7.7% of all Jubilee travelers' spending.
The arithmetic of the Spanish year turns on that group. Spanish spending rose by €10 million in 2025. The Jubilee group alone spent €125 million. Subtracting it leaves about €2,908 million for the rest of the Spanish market, 3.8% below the 2024 total, by our calculation. By the note's definition, those 151,000 travelers would not otherwise have come. On trips the picture is similar. Spanish overnight trips rose by about 0.3 million, and the 151,000 Jubilee travelers are a large part of that rise. Because the trip counts are rounded to 0.1 million, the rise could be anywhere from about 0.2 to 0.4 million, which puts the Jubilee share at roughly 38% to 75%, by our calculation. Both comparisons are rough. The 2024 base already includes a week of the Jubilee, and the Jubilee group may have displaced other Spanish trips that would have happened in 2025. The note publishes no Spanish detail beyond Table 1, so the effect on the rest of the market cannot be measured.
The Vatican's figure for Spain uses another base. Catholic News Service reported on 5 January 2026, from figures Archbishop Rino Fisichella gave at a Vatican press conference, that Italians made up 36% of pilgrims, the United States nearly 13% and Spain 6%, in third place. The report says the breakdown rests only on registered pilgrims, Italians included. The Bank's 11.0% covers foreign visitors in a border survey. The two shares measure different groups and cannot be compared. Neither source gives a number of Spanish pilgrims.
Registered nights: a 2025 jump that is mostly a new count
Italy's registered-accommodation data for 2025 show Spanish nights rising from 6,945,570 to 9,133,365, an increase of 31.5% by our calculation. That rise is mostly a change in what is counted. ISTAT's Storie di dati on tourism, published on 17 July 2026, says the 2025 figures include nights in private rentals run on a non-business basis, available for the first time. With them Italy's 2025 total exceeds 535 million nights, and without them it is 481 million. Eurostat's database carries the new total, 535,463,245 nights, next to 466,158,045 for 2024 on the old basis. It had not restated 2024 by its 12 October update, and its data carry no break flag. Our comparison of Italy and Spain by tourism nights covers the same break for the national totals.
The Spanish figures show where the new nights went. Nights in hotels rose from 4,418,429 to 4,806,606, up 8.8%. Nights in holiday and other short-stay accommodation rose from 2,294,255 to 4,040,180, up 76.1%. The non-hotel categories took about 82% of the 2025 increase, by our calculation. Their share of Spanish nights went from about 36% to about 47%.
The hotel series is the closest to a like-for-like measure. ISTAT places the newly counted rentals in its extra-hotel total without saying so in as many words, and no Eurostat note confirms it, so treating hotels as unaffected is our reading. On that series Spanish hotel nights grew 8.8% in 2025, against 3.5% for all foreign hotel guests. Spain's share of foreign hotel nights was 2.90% in 2019, 2.96% in 2024 and 3.11% in 2025, all our calculations from Eurostat. Spanish hotel arrivals rose 2.7%, to 1,791,130, and each hotel check-in lengthened from about 2.5 to about 2.7 nights.
The comparable years before the break show growth. Spanish registered nights rose from 5,789,755 in 2019 to 6,945,570 in 2024, about 20.0%, by our calculation. ISTAT's own release on 2024, the Statistica Today of 9 March 2026, ranks Spain ninth among foreign markets by nights in 2024, at 2.7% of foreign nights. It was also ninth in 2014, with 4,728,258 nights, and its nights rose 46.9% over the decade. That release gives no Spanish arrivals figure.
The registered series and the Bank of Italy disagree on 2025. Hotel nights rose 8.8%. The Bank's implied Spanish nights fell about 6.1%. The two cover different lodging, and the Bank's 2025 country detail came after its method change. No published source reconciles them.
Spain's own survey counts fewer trips, and Italy first by nights
Spain's survey shows a fall in 2025. Residents of Spain made 2,453,626 trips to Italy in 2024 and 2,341,899 in 2025, down 4.6%, by our calculation. Their nights in Italy fell from 14,595,379 to 14,066,061, down 3.6%. The Bank of Italy counts Spanish overnight trips up 7.5% over the same year. The Eurostat values we read for Italy carry no low-reliability flag.
On nights, Italy is the first foreign destination of Spanish residents. In 2025 Spaniards spent 14.07 million nights in Italy, 13.50 million in France and 10.37 million in Portugal. Italy also led on nights in 2023 and 2024. On trips Italy ranked second in 2025, behind France at 2,844,494 and ahead of Portugal at 2,222,153. In 2024 it was third, just behind Portugal. Italy took about 12.2% of Spanish trips abroad in 2025, down from 13.5% in 2024, both our calculations from the same Eurostat table.
The longer run shows Italy gaining. Spanish trips to Italy rose 23.6% between 2019 and 2025, and nights 28.3%, by our calculation. The stay per trip has held at about 6.0 nights.
INE has also estimated what Spaniards spend in Italy. Its experimental statistic on tourism spending abroad, published on 11 April 2023, put Spanish residents' spending in Italy at €1,684.9 million in 2022. That was 11.2% of their tourism spending abroad and second after France, at €2,792.6 million. It combines the travel survey with card payments, cash withdrawals and mobile-phone location data. The figure is experimental, 2022 is the latest year in that release, and the method is unlike the Bank of Italy's.
Getting there: the busiest air link with Italy
Spain is Italy's largest international air market. ENAC's Dati di traffico 2025 puts traffic with Spain at more than 22.5 million passengers, up 9.2%. That is 14% of Italy's international passengers and 22.8% of its traffic with EU countries. The UK, France and Germany follow. The figure counts everyone on those flights in both directions.
Four routes carry about a quarter of it. Rome Fiumicino to Madrid was Italy's busiest EU route in 2025, with 1,981,194 passengers, up 0.2%. Rome Fiumicino to Barcelona was second with 1,709,745, up 0.4%. Milan Malpensa to Barcelona was third with 1,293,181, up 0.3%, and Milan Malpensa to Madrid sixth with 988,268, up 3.2%. Together they carried 5,972,388 passengers, about 26.5% of Italy-Spain traffic, by our calculation. Those four routes added about 45,000 passengers between them, by our calculation, while total Italy-Spain traffic grew by about 1.9 million, so almost all of the growth came on other routes. ENAC prints no Spanish breakdown below its top-ten table.
No official source gives Spanish visitors by mode of transport, by airport of arrival or by region of stay. We found no published seat-capacity figure for Spain-Italy flights from airlines or the Ministry of Tourism.
The claims that need a unit
Most of what circulates about Spanish visitors to Italy holds for one unit and fails for another. Among the ten countries in the Bank of Italy's table, Spain is fifth by spending and sixth by trips. It is ninth by registered nights in ISTAT's 2024 ranking. It is first by airport passengers, a count that includes Italians.
The Jubilee claims need the most care. A share of 11% of Jubilee visitors is correct only as a share of foreign overnight visitors who came because of the Holy Year. The Spanish bishops' Jubilee commission says in its Memoria that Spain was second in the world by number of participants, after the United States and ahead of Italy. It gives no count and does not say how participants were counted, and Catholic News Service's registered-pilgrim shares put Italy first and Spain third. A Jubilee spending total of €4 billion mixes visitors who came for the Jubilee with visitors who would have come anyway.
No official Spanish figure for 2026 exists yet. The Bank of Italy's monthly commentaries split foreign visitors only into EU and non-EU groups, and Eurostat publishes no monthly Spanish series for Italy.
| Claim as circulated | Outlet and date | Verdict | What the evidence shows |
|---|---|---|---|
| Spain was the second nation in the world by number of Jubilee pilgrims, behind the United States and ahead of Italy | Infovaticana, 24 Jan 2026, reporting the Memoria of the Spanish Episcopal Conference's Jubilee 2025 commission secretariat (undated) | BASE NOT STATED | The Memoria says Spain was second by number of participants, after the US and ahead of Italy, but gives no Spanish count and no counting method; it may count Spaniards organised through the Spanish Church. Catholic News Service (5 Jan 2026) reported Italy first with 36% of registered pilgrims, the US nearly 13% and Spain third at 6%. |
| Jubilee: €4 billion of spending by foreign tourists | Money.it headline (Alberto De Pasquale), 15 Sep 2026 | MISLEADING | The Bank of Italy's note attributes €1,615 million to visitors who came for the Jubilee. The other €2,400 million came from visitors who would have come anyway. The article's text sets out the split and gives Spain 151,000 travelers, second. |
| Spain: 151,000 Jubilee travelers out of 3,631,000 overnight travelers, a 4.2% share | Bank of Italy, Doria note, Table 4, 28 Aug 2026 | TABLE ERROR | Table 4 divides Spain's 151,000 by 3,631,000, the United States' total in Table 3, and its column also gives Canada Germany's 9,402,000. On Table 3 and the Bank's main statistics (4.9 million) the share is about 3.1% (our calculation). |
What this means for travelers, businesses and analysts
Travelers coming from Spain have Italy's two busiest EU air routes to choose from, Madrid and Barcelona to Rome Fiumicino, and Milan Malpensa close behind. Spanish visitors now stay shorter, 5.6 nights per overnight trip in 2025 against 6.4 a year earlier, and they spend less per night than any of the other nine large markets, €110.3. The Jubilee closed on 6 January 2026, so Rome in 2026 no longer carries the extra flow that drew 151,000 Spaniards in 2025. The four busiest routes grew less than 4% each while Spain-Italy traffic rose 9.2%, so most of the new traffic is on other routes. Our Rome travel guide covers where to base a first trip.
Tourism businesses and investors have a market of rising volume and flat value. Spanish spending was €3,033 million in 2025, up 0.3%, while overnight trips rose 7.5% and the average stay fell 12.7%. The Jubilee group spent €125 million, and spending by everyone else was about 3.8% below the 2024 total, on our arithmetic, which cannot separate the Jubilee from other changes. Holiday spending still rose 10.8%, and Spanish hotel nights grew 8.8%, faster than the 3.5% for all foreign hotel guests. Spain's own survey points the other way, with trips to Italy down 4.6%. Anyone planning on the Spanish market for 2026 should treat 2025 as a Jubilee year and wait for a second year of data. A Bank of Italy Spanish breakdown by region or purpose, a restated 2024 accommodation series, or an explanation of the gap between the Bank's and INE's counts would change this assessment.
Journalists and analysts should name the unit with every Spanish figure, as the box above sets out. Do not describe the 11.0% as a share of pilgrims or of Spanish visitors, do not use the 4.2% in Table 4 of the Bank's Jubilee note, and do not present the 31.5% rise in registered nights as growth. Our article on American tourists in Italy covers the largest national group in the same Jubilee survey. Across the five source-market articles in this series the pattern repeats, with good annual counts in incompatible units, a 2025 accommodation basis that cannot be compared with 2024, and no official count for the current year. Spain adds a new case, a home-country survey that moves in the opposite direction to the Bank of Italy.
Data & sources
Period covered: 2019 to 2025 (annual official data; Jubilee window 24 December 2024 to 6 January 2026)
- Banca d'Italia, Indagine sul turismo internazionale, Statistiche (26 June 2026) · Spain rows of Table 3 (spending, overnight spending, spending per night), Table 4 (trips, overnight trips, average stay) and Table 6 (personal and holiday spending), 2023-2025, with totals and the comparison rows for Germany, France, the UK and the US; Jubilee box; note on the in-house sample expansion from February 2025. Accessed 7 Nov 2026.
- Banca d'Italia, C. Doria, Un'analisi dei flussi turistici internazionali connessi con il Giubileo del 2025, Metodi e fonti (28 August 2026) · Definitions of Jubilee travelers and other participants; Table 1 (spending, travelers and nights by country, Spain 151,000 and €125 million); Table 3 (shares and overnight travelers by country, Spain 4,902,000); Table 4 checked and not used for overnight totals. Accessed 7 Nov 2026.
- Eurostat, tour_occ_ninraw and tour_occ_arnraw (updated 12 October 2026) · Nights and arrivals of residents of Spain in Italian registered accommodation, 2019-2025, by type (hotels I551, holiday and short-stay I552, campsites I553); arrivals from the tour_occ_arnraw table with the same parameters. Accessed 7 Nov 2026.
- Eurostat, tour_occ_ninat (updated 12 October 2026) · Nights of all foreign residents in Italian hotels, 2019-2025, used for Spain's share of foreign hotel nights and the all-foreign hotel growth rate. Accessed 7 Nov 2026.
- Eurostat, tour_dem_ttw and tour_dem_tnw, from INE's resident travel survey (updated 8 October 2026) · Trips and nights of at least one night by residents of Spain, by main destination, 2019-2025, for Italy, France, Portugal and the world total; nights from tour_dem_tnw with the same parameters. Accessed 7 Nov 2026.
- ISTAT, Statistica Today, 2024: nuovo anno record per il turismo in Italia (9 March 2026) · Prospetto 6, top 30 foreign countries by nights in Italian accommodation, 2014 and 2024 (Spain ninth in both years, 6,945,570 nights in 2024); scope excludes non-business private lodgings. Also used: ISTAT, Storie di dati, turismo (17 July 2026), note 1, on the 2025 inclusion of non-business private rentals (535 million nights with them, 481 million without). Accessed 7 Nov 2026.
- ENAC, Dati di traffico 2025, version 0.7 · Italy-Spain passenger traffic (pages 7, 16 and 35) and the top ten EU routes (Figure 35, pages 44-45), scheduled and charter, arriving and departing, all nationalities. Accessed 7 Nov 2026.
- INE, Gasto turístico de los residentes en España en el extranjero, experimental statistic (11 April 2023); Catholic News Service via USCCB (5 January 2026) · Spanish residents' tourism spending in Italy in 2022 (€1,684.9 million, 11.2%, second after France). Also consulted: Catholic News Service, Vatican sees record number of visitors during Jubilee year (https://www.usccb.org/news/2026/vatican-sees-record-number-visitors-during-jubilee-year-officials-say), registered-pilgrim shares; claims sources Infovaticana (24 January 2026), the Spanish Episcopal Conference's Jubilee 2025 Memoria (https://www.conferenciaepiscopal.es/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/MEMORIA-JUBILEO-2025.pdf) and Money.it (15 September 2026). Accessed 7 Nov 2026.
Methodology
Sources used: Banca d'Italia, Indagine sul turismo internazionale, Statistiche (26 June 2026), Tables 3, 4 and 6, the Jubilee box and the note on sample expansion, with the rows for Germany, France, the UK, the US and all foreign visitors used for comparison; Banca d'Italia, Un'analisi dei flussi turistici internazionali connessi con il Giubileo del 2025 by Claudio Doria (Metodi e fonti, 28 August 2026), Tables 1, 3 and 4 read in the PDF text; Eurostat tables tour_occ_ninraw and tour_occ_arnraw for residents of Spain in Italy and tour_occ_ninat for all foreign hotel nights (updated 12 October 2026); Eurostat tables tour_dem_ttw and tour_dem_tnw for Spain (updated 8 October 2026), from INE's resident travel survey; ISTAT, Statistica Today on 2024 (9 March 2026), Prospetto 6, and Storie di dati on tourism (17 July 2026), note 1 on the 2025 basis; ENAC, Dati di traffico 2025, version 0.7; INE's experimental statistic on residents' tourism spending abroad (11 April 2023); Catholic News Service via USCCB (5 January 2026); Infovaticana (24 January 2026); the Memoria of the Spanish Episcopal Conference's Jubilee 2025 commission secretariat (undated, published January 2026); Money.it (15 September 2026). Keyword data: Ahrefs Keywords Explorer, Google US, 7 November 2026.
Limitations: (1) The four sets of counts use different units, residence definitions and scopes, and cannot be combined or divided. (2) The 2025 Eurostat/ISTAT accommodation data include private non-business rentals, with no break flag and no Spanish figure on the old basis; treating hotel nights as like-for-like assumes the new rentals fall outside the hotel category, which ISTAT's extra-hotel placement supports without stating it. (3) The Bank of Italy publishes no Spanish nights, region, month, mode or business figures; the nights and the business residual here are derivations, and its counts are rounded to 0.1 million. (4) The Bank of Italy took its sample expansion in house in February 2025 and says some detailed breakdowns differ from the earlier series, so the 2025 Spanish row may not be fully comparable with 2024. (5) The Jubilee estimates rest on a survey in which 1,117 interviews named the Jubilee as the main reason for the trip; the Spanish share carries sampling error that the note does not publish. (6) Table 4 of the Jubilee note has an overnight-travelers column that does not match Table 3 for several countries; we read both in the PDF text, not the rendered page, and used Table 3. (7) Spain's survey counts trips by main destination, and its age coverage and Eurostat metadata were not checked; the share of Spanish trips abroad going to Italy uses Eurostat's world total minus domestic trips (19.2 million in 2025), which may differ from INE's own published total, so it is indicative. (8) ENAC counts every passenger in both directions, and its report is a version-numbered file with no printed date. (9) No Spanish regional data, airline capacity figures or pilgrim headcounts were found or checked.
Handling of contested and unverified claims: each contested figure is reported with both values and the one the evidence favours, or with neither favoured where the units differ (Bank of Italy against Spain's survey). Claims that could not be traced to a primary are labelled as such, and the claims table names the outlet and date of each. Derived figures are marked as our calculation where they appear. Not opened: the Dicastery for Evangelization's own data, INE's resident survey annex tables and later experimental spending data, Assaeroporti, regional observatories and the Ministry of Tourism's summer 2026 forecast.
Notes on the data
(1) No official source counts individual Spanish people visiting Italy, and none publishes a Spanish figure for 2026. For 2025 this article uses four sets of counts in their own units: Bank of Italy trips (border crossings including same-day visits, residents of Spain), Eurostat/ISTAT registered-accommodation arrivals and nights, Spain's resident travel survey (INE) as published by Eurostat (trips with at least one night, by main destination), and ENAC airport passengers. The Bank of Italy publishes no Spanish nights figure and no Spanish breakdown by region, month, accommodation type, transport mode or business purpose. ISTAT's 2024 release gives no Spanish arrivals, and no ISTAT release by country for 2025 was found. No Spanish registered-nights figure on the old basis exists for 2025. No source gives the number of Spanish pilgrims at the Jubilee, a mode split for Spanish travel to Italy, airline seat capacity between Spain and Italy, or passengers by nationality. Regional observatories were not searched for Spanish rows. The latest year in INE's experimental spending release is 2022.
(2) Contested figures. The direction of Spanish travel to Italy in 2025 differs by count: Bank of Italy overnight trips up 7.5% (4.6 million to 4.9 million) and trips up 4.7%, against Spain's survey with trips down 4.6% (2,453,626 to 2,341,899) and nights down 3.6%; neither is favoured because the units differ. Spanish nights differ by scope: about 27.2 million implied by the Bank of Italy (our derivation, down about 6.1%), 14.07 million in Spain's survey, 9.13 million in registered accommodation on the new basis and 4.81 million in hotels (up 8.8%). The Bank's Jubilee note prints Spain's overnight travelers as 4,902,000 in Table 3 and 3,631,000 in Table 4; Table 3 is favoured because it matches the Bank's main statistics (4.9 million) and because Table 4's overnight column does not match Table 3 for several countries, including a Canadian total of 9,402,000 that is Germany's figure in Table 3. Spain's share of Jubilee visitors is 11.0% of Jubilee-motivated foreign overnight travelers (Bank of Italy) and 6% of registered pilgrims including Italians (Catholic News Service); both stand on their own bases.
(3) Failed or qualified claims. The statement that Spain is 11% of Jubilee visitors, including in our own earlier notes, holds only as a share of foreign overnight visitors who came because of the Jubilee. Infovaticana's report (24 January 2026) that Spain was second in the world by number of pilgrims, ahead of Italy, accurately reports the Spanish Episcopal Conference's Jubilee Memoria, which we opened; the Memoria gives no Spanish count and no counting method (BASE NOT STATED), and its ranking conflicts with the registered-pilgrim shares reported by Catholic News Service. Money.it's headline of €4 billion in Jubilee spending (15 September 2026) combines €1,615 million from Jubilee travelers with €2,400 million from visitors who would have come anyway; its text gives the split. The 4.2% Spanish Jubilee share in Table 4 of the Bank's note rests on the United States' total. The 31.5% rise in Spanish registered nights implied by Eurostat for 2025 is not like-for-like growth; we found no outlet reporting it, and it is flagged so that it is not cited as growth. Our own article on American tourists in Italy describes the 17.1% and 11.0% as shares of Jubilee visitors, a looser unit than the Bank's. A summer 2026 Ministry of Tourism figure of +17% in direct seats for Spain, quoted in our article on British tourists in Italy, could not be matched to Spain-Italy travel and is not used here.
(4) Derived figures, all our calculation: Spain's shares of foreign trips (6.3%), overnight trips (8.0%) and spending (5.3%); same-day trips of about 0.9 million (margin about 0.1 million) and same-day spending of €30 million; spending per trip (about €523) and per overnight trip (about €613, all foreign about €889); spending per night change (7.0%); implied Bank of Italy nights (26.5, 29.0 and 27.2 million) and their 6.1% fall; the residual outside personal trips (€362 million, -16.8%); non-holiday personal spending (-9.7%); holiday shares (49.7% and 59.4%); the Jubilee group as 3.1% of Spanish overnight trips, its spending per trip (€828) and per night (€142), its 4.1% share of Spanish spending and 7.7% of Jubilee spending, Spanish spending without it (€2,908 million, -3.8%), its share of the rise in overnight trips (roughly 38% to 75% given rounding) and Spain's over-representation ratio (1.4); all Eurostat growth rates and shares (31.5%, 8.8%, 76.1%, 3.5%, 82%, 2.90%, 2.96%, 3.11%, 2.7%, 20.0%, nights per arrival); Spain's survey changes (-4.6%, -3.6%, +23.6%, +28.3%), nights per trip (6.0) and Italy's share of Spanish trips abroad (12.2% and 13.5%); the ratio of Bank to Spanish-survey overnight trips (2.1); the French same-day share (about 47%) is from our article on French tourists in Italy; the four routes' share of ENAC traffic (26.5%), their combined growth (about 45,000) and total Italy-Spain growth (about 1.9 million, from ENAC's 9.2%).
(5) Press-reported and self-reported figures. The registered-pilgrim shares (Italy 36%, United States nearly 13%, Spain 6%) come from Catholic News Service's report of 5 January 2026, which attributes the breakdown to figures given by Archbishop Rino Fisichella and based only on registered pilgrims; the Dicastery's own data were not opened. Spain's second place among Jubilee participants is the Spanish Episcopal Conference's own claim in its Memoria, with no count or method. The ISTAT basis change is taken from ISTAT's Storie di dati of 17 July 2026 (note 1), and the Bank of Italy's statement that some detailed breakdowns differ after its February 2025 method change is from its statistics release of 26 June 2026.
Frequently asked questions
How many Spanish tourists visit Italy each year?
The Bank of Italy counted 5.8 million trips by residents of Spain in 2025, including about 0.9 million same-day visits, and 4.9 million trips with at least one night. It counts border crossings, so repeat visitors count more than once. Spain's own survey counts 2,341,899 trips to Italy with at least one night in 2025, on a main-destination basis.
How much do Spanish tourists spend in Italy?
€3,033 million in 2025, up 0.3% on 2024, according to the Bank of Italy. That ranks Spain fifth among foreign markets, after Germany, the United States, the UK and France. Spanish overnight visitors spent €110.3 a night, the lowest of the ten countries in the Bank's table.
How long do Spanish tourists stay in Italy?
5.6 nights per overnight trip in 2025, down from 6.4 in 2023 and 2024, according to the Bank of Italy. Spain's own survey gives about 6.0 nights per trip (our calculation). In registered accommodation each Spanish check-in lasted about 2.8 nights (our calculation from Eurostat).
What share of Jubilee visitors came from Spain?
11.0% of foreign overnight visitors who came to Italy because of the Jubilee in 2025, or 151,000 people, second after the United States at 17.1% (Bank of Italy note, 28 August 2026). Among registered pilgrims, Italians included, Catholic News Service reported Spain third at 6%, from figures given by Archbishop Rino Fisichella. The two shares use different bases.
Did the Jubilee increase Spanish tourism to Italy?
It added a measurable group. The Bank of Italy counted 151,000 Spaniards who came because of the Jubilee and spent €125 million, while total Spanish spending rose only €10 million. Spending by all other Spanish visitors was about 3.8% below the 2024 total (our calculation). That is a subtraction, and the data cannot show what would have happened without the Jubilee.
Did Spanish tourism to Italy grow in 2025?
The counts disagree. The Bank of Italy shows Spanish overnight trips up 7.5% and spending up 0.3%. Spain's own survey shows trips to Italy down 4.6% and nights down 3.6%. Registered hotel nights rose 8.8% (Eurostat). Each count has a different unit and scope.
Is Italy a popular destination for Spaniards?
Yes on Spain's own figures. Italy was Spanish residents' first foreign destination by nights in 2025, with 14.07 million, ahead of France and Portugal, and second by trips after France (Eurostat, from INE's survey). INE's experimental statistic put Italy second for Spanish tourism spending abroad in 2022, at €1,684.9 million.
How do most Spaniards travel to Italy?
No official source gives a Spanish mode split. Flights between Italy and Spain carried more than 22.5 million passengers in 2025, up 9.2%, of every nationality (ENAC). Rome Fiumicino to Madrid and to Barcelona were Italy's two busiest EU routes.
Where in Italy do Spanish tourists go?
No national source publishes Spanish visitors by region or city. The busiest air routes from Spain land at Rome Fiumicino and Milan Malpensa, and the Bank of Italy's statistics release says Rome was the main destination for more than 90% of Jubilee-related flows of all nationalities. Regional data for Spanish guests were not checked for this article.