Who spends most in Italy: Canada per night among the ten named countries, Germany in total

Three rankings, three different winners

The Bank of Italy publishes spending for ten countries by name in Table 3 of its survey results. A footnote says they are the ten countries of residence with the highest total spending in 2025. Every other country is folded into a regional total such as Asia, Oceania or Europe outside the EU. Table 4 gives the matching counts of travellers, overnight travellers and average length of stay.

By total spending, the order is Germany (€8,822 million), the United States (€6,605 million), the United Kingdom (€5,303 million), France (€4,648 million) and Spain (€3,033 million). The Netherlands, Austria, Switzerland, Canada and Poland complete the ten. Germany alone accounts for 15.6% of the €56,724 million that foreign travellers spent in Italy in 2025. The ten countries together account for 66.5% of the total, by our calculation.

By spending per night, the order of the ten changes almost completely. Canada leads at €185.2, then the United States at €178.1 and the United Kingdom at €151.5. Austria (€146.5), the Netherlands (€142.5), Switzerland (€142.0) and Germany (€140.2) sit close together just above the foreign average. France (€132.6), Poland (€125.5) and Spain (€110.3) are below it. Germany, first on total spending, is seventh of ten per night.

A third ranking, per trip, is not printed by the Bank, but it can be derived from the same tables. Dividing the spending of overnight travellers by the number of overnight travellers gives roughly €1,831 per overnight trip for Americans and €1,689 for Canadians, against about €889 for all foreign overnight visitors. On this measure the United States is first of the ten again, because Americans stay longer: 10.2 nights on average against 9.3 for Canadians and 6.4 for all foreign overnight visitors. These per-trip figures are our arithmetic and rest on traveller counts rounded to the nearest 100,000, so the Canadian figure could be about 5% higher or lower. The order between the two does not change within that margin.

The per-trip order below the top two is different again. On the same arithmetic, Dutch overnight visitors spent about €935 a trip and Germans about €917, ahead of the British at about €801. Swiss, French, Austrian, Spanish and Polish overnight trips all came to between about €580 and €670. The Netherlands ranks sixth on total spending and fifth per night, but third per overnight trip, because Dutch visitors stay 6.5 nights on average, longer than most Europeans.

Counting every trip, including same-day visits, pulls the neighbouring countries further down. Total spending divided by all trips comes to about €1,611 for Americans, €673 for Germans, €384 for the French and €245 for the Swiss, by our calculation. Those low European figures reflect short hops across the border. They say little about what a Swiss or French holidaymaker spends on a week in Italy.

The three rankings answer three questions. Total spending tells you which markets matter most to Italy's economy. Spending per night tells you how much a visitor spends on an average night of the stay. Spending per trip folds in how long people stay. A country can lead on one and trail on another without any contradiction.

Canada and the North American premium

Canada's per-night figure has climbed fast. It was €159.2 in 2023, €186.9 in 2024 and €185.2 in 2025. Over the same two years Canadian spending in Italy rose from €1,255 million to €1,695 million, a gain of 35.1% by our calculation, and the number of Canadian trips rose from 0.9 million to 1.2 million. In 2025 the Bank counted 1.0 million Canadian overnight travellers, up 19.7% on its unrounded figures. Most of the jump in spending came in 2024, when Canadian spending rose 27.8% in a single year, by our calculation, and spending per night rose from €159.2 to €186.9.

Canadians also stay long, though less long than before. The average Canadian stay fell from 10.8 nights in 2023 to 9.3 in 2025. Spending per night barely moved in 2025, down 0.9%. The growth in total Canadian spending came from more visitors, while spending per night stayed flat.

The North American premium is the clearest pattern in the table. Both named North American countries spend far more per night than any named European country. Canada is 33% above the all-foreign average and the United States 28% above it, by our calculation. The North America row as a whole, which the Bank reports separately, comes to €179.6 a night. Americans and Canadians together made 5.7% of foreign trips to Italy in 2025 and accounted for 14.6% of foreign spending.

The data do not say why. Long-haul visitors pay a high fixed cost to reach Italy, which the survey excludes. A common explanation is that they also stay in hotels and in the most visited cities, which cost more. The survey cannot confirm it. The Bank's accommodation table shows hotels at €206.8 a night against €97.3 for visitors staying with relatives or friends, but it does not split accommodation by country. Any explanation that rests on where North Americans sleep or which cities they choose is an inference that these tables do not test.

How the United States slipped from first

American spending per night fell from €191.1 in 2024 to €178.1 in 2025. Total American spending still rose 3.0%, to €6,605 million. Those two facts fit together. More Americans stayed overnight, 3.6 million against 3.2 million, while total US trips held at 4.1 million, and their stays were slightly shorter. The total they spent grew more slowly than the nights they spent.

By our calculation, nights spent by Americans in Italy rose by about 11% in 2025, while total American spending rose 3.0%. Spending spread over more nights gives a lower figure per night. The Bank prints no country-level nights, so this rests on dividing each country's overnight spending by its published spending per night, a calculation that reproduces the Bank's total of 392.8 million foreign nights when it is applied to all regions. Multiplying overnight travellers by average stay gives a similar rise.

Over two years the picture is flatter. American spending per night in 2025 was 3.6% below its 2023 level, by our calculation, while the average for all foreign overnight visitors rose 8.7% over the same period, from €128.0 to €139.1. Other markets caught up with the United States as much as the United States fell back.

The fall does not mean Americans became thrifty visitors. At €178.1 a night they are still 28% above the foreign average and second of the ten named countries. They remain first of the ten per overnight trip, by our calculation, and second on total spending. The Bank's own commentary, in its box on the 2025 Jubilee, describes American travellers as traditionally spending more than average. That description still fits the 2025 numbers. What changed is that one smaller market moved just above them on a single measure.

The survey does not explain the American fall. 2025 was a Jubilee year in Rome, and the Bank found that 17.1% of the foreign visitors who came to Italy for the Jubilee lived in the United States. Whether those visitors spent differently per night from other Americans is not published at country level. Our Jubilee analysis covers what the Bank found about those visitors as a group. For the wider picture of American travel to Italy, including 2026 indicators from other sources, see our report on American tourists in Italy.

Europe's drive markets: Germany, the UK, Switzerland and France

Germany dominates Italy's foreign spending on volume. German residents made 13.1 million trips in 2025, more than any other country, and spent €8,822 million. Their spending per night has risen from €122.2 in 2023 to €140.2 in 2025, a gain of 14.7% by our calculation, and is now just above the foreign average. Overnight German trips fell 5.5% to 9.4 million in 2025, while trips overall rose. Our German tourists in Italy report covers that split in detail.

The United Kingdom is the strongest per-night performer in Europe. British visitors spent €151.5 a night in 2025, third of the ten named countries, up from €130.3 in 2023. Total British spending grew 7.6% to €5,303 million, the fastest growth of the ten. British stays are short, at 5.3 nights on average, so British visitors rank lower per trip than per night. Our report on British tourists in Italy sets the 2025 figures against other British data sources.

Switzerland is the market where the method matters most. Swiss residents made 7.1 million trips to Italy in 2025, but only 1.9 million included a night. About 73% of Swiss trips were same-day visits, by our calculation, the highest share of any named country. Austria (about 57%) and France (about 47%) follow. Same-day visitors spend money, but they spend no nights, so the Bank leaves them out of the per-night figure and gives them their own daily average, €68.5 in 2025 for all foreign same-day visitors.

That is why a country's total spending divided by its nights does not give its overnight visitors' spending per night. Switzerland's total spending was €1,743 million. Its overnight travellers spent €1,271 million over about 9.0 million nights. Total spending divided by those nights comes to about €195 a night. The published figure is €142.0. The difference is the €472 million that Swiss day-trippers spent, counted in the total but spread over no nights. The same shortcut applied to all foreign visitors gives €144.4, which is the Bank's figure for all travellers including day-trippers, against €139.1 for overnight visitors.

Switzerland's per-night spending has also fallen, from €157.9 in 2023 to €142.0 in 2025. In 2023 Switzerland ranked third per night, behind the United States and Canada. By 2025 it was sixth.

France ranks fourth on total spending and second on trips, with 12.1 million, but eighth per night at €132.6. Spain has the lowest per-night figure of the ten at €110.3, though it has risen from €90.8 in 2023. Austria (€146.5) and the Netherlands (€142.5) both rose sharply in 2025, by 7.5% and 11.0%, and Poland reached €125.5. Among the European markets, only Switzerland spent less per night in 2025 than in 2023.

Asia, Oceania and the countries the table leaves out

The Bank does not name any Asian, Middle Eastern, Latin American, African or Oceanian country. Visitors from Asia spent €5,055 million in 2025, up 17.5%, the fastest growth of any region. Their spending per night was €158.2, down from €164.5 in 2024. Oceania spent €162.0 a night, down from €181.6. Both figures are averages over large, mixed regions. The tables do not define which countries the Asia row includes.

This limits what the survey can say about individual markets. Whether Chinese visitors spend more than others in Italy cannot be tested against it, because China has no row. The same is true for Japan, Korea, India, the Gulf states, Australia and Brazil. The Asia average of €158.2 sits below both named North American countries, but an average across a whole continent can hide individual countries far above or below it. Whether Gulf visitors spend the most per night is neither confirmed nor refuted by these tables, because there is no Middle East row.

The other regional rows follow the same pattern of mixed averages. Visitors from Central and South America spent €115.2 a night in 2025 and those from Africa €90.3, the lowest of any region. Central and South American spending fell 8.5% in 2025, and Oceania's fell 9.5%. Neither row names a single country, so neither can support a claim about Brazil, Argentina, Australia or any other individual market.

Other sources do give figures for individual markets, including Gulf and Chinese visitors, but they measure card payments or tax-free purchases rather than spending per night, and none of them can be checked against the Bank's tables. The panel below tests three published claims drawn from those sources against the survey.

Cards and tax-free receipts rank a different set of shoppers

Two other data series are often quoted in stories about who spends most in Italy. Neither measures the same thing as the Bank's survey.

Nexi, the payments company, publishes foreign card spending with Italy's National Tourism Observatory. Its first report, published in June 2025 and covering 2024, put American cardholders first with €3.8 billion, 18.3% of foreign card tourist spending, according to a QuiFinanza report on the study. The same coverage gives average spending per card of €913 for Saudi cards and €822 for Emirati cards, against €411 for all foreign cards. Spending per card is not spending per night or per trip. One card can cover a family, one traveller can carry several cards, and cash is not counted.

Global Blue, which processes tax-free refunds, reports the share of tax-free shopping by nationality. A Qualitytravel.it report of its 2025 Italian figures puts American shoppers at about a quarter of tax-free spending, Gulf shoppers at 10% and Chinese shoppers at 9%, with Chinese spending down 13%. Il Sole 24 Ore reported in October 2026 that Americans made 28% of tax-free shoppers in Italy in the first half of 2026. Tax-free figures cover purchases of goods by visitors from outside the EU. They say nothing about hotels or meals.

These series agree with the Bank of Italy on one point. American visitors are among Italy's largest spenders. Neither series measures spending per night, so neither can show who leads on that measure. Global Blue's figures also leave out Germany and every other EU country, because EU residents cannot claim tax-free refunds. Each series should be cited under its own name, with its own year and scope.

What the number leaves out

The Bank's per-night figure is an average over everything a visitor spends inside Italy, divided by nights. It is useful, but it leaves out a good deal.

It excludes international transport. A Canadian's transatlantic fare is not in the figure, and neither is a German's fuel before the border. It includes transport within Italy, which raises the figure for visitors who move around the country.

It blends very different kinds of stay. Foreign visitors spent 143.3 million nights in hotels and holiday villages in 2025, about 36.5% of all foreign nights, and 75.6 million nights as guests of relatives or friends. Hotel nights averaged €206.8 and nights with family or friends €97.3. A country whose visitors often stay with family will show a lower per-night figure even if its hotel guests spend as much as anyone else. The Bank does not publish this split by country.

It classifies visitors by country of residence, whatever their passport. An Italian citizen living in Toronto counts as a Canadian visitor, and a Canadian citizen living in London counts as British. Headlines that speak of nationality are using the Bank's residence categories, and the difference matters most for countries with large Italian communities abroad, such as Canada, the United States, Germany and Switzerland. The Bank does not publish how many visitors in each row hold Italian citizenship.

It is a mean. A small number of very high spenders can raise a country's figure, and the published tables give no median or range. The survey also does not print its sample size by country, so the margin of error on the smaller rows, such as Canada with about one million overnight travellers, is not published.

Finally, the figures are for the 2025 calendar year. The Bank's monthly releases for 2026 report foreign spending as a whole, €8.3 billion in July 2026, up 6.8% on a year earlier, but they do not split by nationality. The next full breakdown by country is expected with the 2026 survey results, on the pattern of previous years in late June. Our 2026 record watch tracks the national totals in the meantime.

What this means for travellers, businesses and analysts

For travellers, the figures give a rough benchmark for the average cost of a trip to Italy, excluding flights. Foreign overnight visitors spent €139.1 a night on average in 2025, and North Americans spent between €178 and €185. The average overnight trip cost about €889 per traveller across all foreign visitors and roughly €1,700 to €1,800 for North Americans, who stay about ten nights. These are averages across hotel guests and people staying with family, so a hotel-based trip will usually cost more per night than the headline figure. Local taxes add to that, and our guide to Italy's tourist tax sets out the 2026 rates.

For businesses, the ranking to use depends on the question. A hotel group sizing a market should look at total spending and overnight trips, where Germany, the United States and the United Kingdom lead. A business selling a premium nightly product should look at spending per night, where Canada and the United States lead the named countries and the UK is the strongest European market. A retailer counting on tax-free sales should look at Global Blue's figures, which rank a different set of shoppers and exclude EU residents.

For analysts, the main rule is to keep the series apart and to name the one being used. The Bank of Italy's per-night figure covers overnight travellers only and excludes international fares. Total spending divided by nights is the Bank's all-traveller figure, not overnight spending per night, and for markets with many day-trippers the two differ widely, by about €53 a night in Switzerland's case. Countries outside the ten named rows cannot be ranked from this survey, so claims about Chinese, Japanese or Gulf visitors need a different source and a different measure. And Canada's lead over the United States in 2025 is about €7 a night in one year's survey, a margin small enough that the order could change again in the 2026 results.