Tourists visit the archaeological park of the Colosseum and the Imperial Forums in Rome – Ansa
The trend was clear and the result was now achieved. After the dark years of the pandemic, Italy returns to being the queen of tourism: with over 134 million arrivals and 451 million presences in hospitality establishments, 2023 was the record year for presences in our country. The best ever. Well above the pre-pandemic levels of 2019, when the last burst of tourism was recorded before the world stopped: +3.0 million arrivals (+2.3%) and +14.5 million presences ( +3.3%). Compared to 2022, a growth in arrivals of 13.4% and presences of 9.5% is estimated. With the foreign component returning to prevail over the domestic one (52.4% of attendance). A clear sign of how global travelers have strongly returned to flying.
The estimates give an absolutely broad picture of the phenomenon, being the result of the joint activities of the inter-institutional working group on tourism “Alloggiati web”, established in 2023 as part of the Memorandum of Understanding “Development and enhancement of statistical information on tourism”, signed by Istat and the Ministry of Tourism. The working group had the task of verifying the possibility of valorising – in support of the production of official statistics on tourism – the data present in the “Alloggiati web” information system, i.e. the information acquired by the Police (Ministry of the Interior) for reasons of public security which are subsequently transmitted to the Ministry of Tourism. “Alloggiati web” is in fact the portal managed by the Police, which allows the managers of hotel and non-hotel tourist accommodation facilities to comply with the obligation to transmit to the territorially competent police headquarters the details of the people staying at their facility, within 24 hours following their arrival. Thus the numbers allow us to have the aggregate data of hotels and non-hotel facilities.
If in 2019, Italy was the fifth most visited country in the world with 65 million foreign arrivals according to Istat, and the third in terms of number of overnight stays (221 million) after the United States (345) and Spain (299) , and ahead of China (192), the United Kingdom (161) and France (137), in 2023, it was confirmed second destination for presences in Europe (Eurostat, 2024), and fifth in the world for international tourist arrivals (UNWTO).
Tourists at the Pantheon in Rome last August – Ansa
Santanché: Italy returns to occupy the place it deserves
“The numbers never lie. Italy is returning to occupy the place it deserves in the global tourism panorama”, says the Minister of Tourism, Daniela Santanché, proudly. A result that is “not accidental”, but “the result of a targeted strategy that places tourism at the center of government policies”. “A sector – underlines the minister – which is growing more than others by virtue of the ability of entrepreneurs to enhance the best that Italy can offer and of an executive that creates the best conditions to allow companies to operate with maximum effectiveness”. For the member of the government, who immediately pushed to promote the country abroad, at trade fairs international and with ad hoc campaigns, “the measures on tourism, together with the professionalism expressed by operators in the sector, have led to a clear change of direction with an unprecedented impact. Nothing happens by chance: this success is the outcome of a series of investments implemented by the ministry with the support of Enit to strengthen Italy’s image and international credibility in the world, factors that have contributed to putting our nation back in fashion , especially abroad”.
A beach in the Conero regional park, in the Marche – Ansa
The challenge of quality and sustainability
The numbers are fine, but the real challenge lies in the long term on quality. Otherwise the risk is to support an overtourism which could ultimately turn out to be a boomerang. With side effects and a negative impact on cities and communities, on housing prices, gentrification. The minister is aware of this: “The challenge – she explains – is not only to increase the number of presences, but rather to increasingly focus on quality tourism, and therefore on tourist offers capable of satisfying, in a sustainable way, every type of need. This means managing flows and encouraging the creation of hotels, including luxury ones, in order to raise the level of our offer so that it is not just hit and run but can offer tourists immersive experiences and attract more resources to our wonderful territories “. “Territories made up of many small villages that we must be able to generate income by promoting policies of deseasonalization and distribution of flows. Our industrial vision of the sector is successful, judging from the data, and we will continue to work intensely on this”, concludes Santanchè.
Piazza San Marco in Venice. The lagoon city and the North-East are at the top of the attendance – Paolo Gallo Modena / Icp Online
Where do tourists go? The primacy of the North-East
At a territorial level, the highest number of presences in 2023 is recorded in the North-East, where around 177 million are concentrated, equal to 39.2% of the national total; followed by the Center (24%) and the North-West (17.7%). It emerges from the estimates of the inter-institutional working group on tourism resulting from the agreement between Istat and MiTur that for 2023 it records the historical record in the trend of tourism in Italy with over 134 million arrivals and 451 million presences in accommodation establishments. The region with the highest number of presences is Veneto (15.9% of national presences), followed by Trentino-Alto Adige (12.4%), Tuscany, Lombardy and Lazio (all just over 10% ). The first region in the South is Campania, with 4.5% of national presences (just over 20 million presences). In terms of changes compared to 2022, the regions that record an increase in presences higher than the national average (+ 9.5%) are Lazio (+25.3%), Lombardy (+16.8%), Sicily (+13.9%), Campania (+13.3%) and Valle d’ Aosta (+11%). The increases are partly determined by the recovery of tourist flows in large cities. A more contained growth, with values lower than 3 percentage points, affects the Marche (+0.6%), Abruzzo (+2.2%) and Emilia-Romagna (+2.7%). Compared to 2019, i.e. at pre-pandemic values, the regions in which tourist presences increased the most – with increases above 10% and decidedly larger than the national average (3.3%) – are Lazio, Lombardy and Sicily. However, only seven regions have not yet recovered the 2019 levels: Molise (-2%), Emilia-Romagna (-2.9%), Piedmont (-3.2%), Tuscany (- 4.3%), Campania (-8.7%), Basilicata (-15.1%) and Calabria (-18.3%).
A tourist on a trip. – Icp Online
Hotels, but more and more houses
Arrivals and presences in non-hotel establishments increased by 16.9% and 11% respectively. The hotel sector, however, records slightly more contained increases; in fact, arrivals increased by 11.5% and attendance by 8.1%. At a territorial level, the increase in presences in the non-hotel sector is even 20% higher in Lazio (31.5%), in Sicily (25.2%), in Campania (22.8%) and in Lombardy ( 22.3%). Furthermore, in Lazio, the increase in presences has reached values above +20% even in the hotel sector. In 2023, from the point of view of the distribution of presences by type of accommodation, the hotel sector hosted approximately 61% of the total presences. Hotel accommodation facilities come to absorb more than 70% of regional tourist presences in Calabria, Campania, Emilia-Romagna, Valle d’Aosta/Vallée d’Aoste and in the two autonomous provinces of Trentino-Alto Adige. The non-hotel sector exceeds the hotel sector in terms of attendance only in three regions: Marche, Tuscany and Veneto.
