Read news from:
Austria
SHARE
COPY LINK
For members

TOURISM

Americans or Germans – which nationalities visit Italy the most?

International tourism was even more important to Italy’s economy this summer, with Italian families travelling less due to soaring costs. But which nationalities visit - and spend - the most?

Published: 5 September 2023 17:33 CEST
Updated: 6 September 2023 09:12 CEST
Tourists at Rome's Trevi Fountain on August 21st, 2023.
Tourists at Rome's Trevi Fountain on August 21st, 2023. Photo by FILIPPO MONTEFORTE / AFP.

US travellers are back in force in Italy this year, as visitors who have put their holidays on hold for the past three years are finally making the trip.

“Americans are travelling again in a big way, the dollar is strong, and they have plenty of liquidity,” Bernabò Bocca, president of the Federalberghi hotels association, told journalists, joking in one interview that Italy had been “saved by the Americans.” 

The bump in US tourists is all the more important as initial reports suggest domestic tourism in Italy fell this summer due to soaring costs and stagnant wages – though the wealth they bring isn’t necessarily shared evenly across the country.

READ ALSO: Five essential tips to escape the tourist crowds in Venice

“Just because Rome is full doesn’t mean you can say tourism is booming,” Bocca pointed out.

“80 percent of Americans come to us for the first time and so obviously focus their attention on Rome, Florence and Venice.”

Tourists on a ferry on Lake Maggiore on August 22, 2023. Photo by MARCO BERTORELLO / AFP.

It isn’t just Americans, though, who drive Italy’s foreign tourism sector; the majority of Italy’s foreign tourists (77 percent in 2021) come from within the EU, with Germany leading the pack.

Germans are the biggest spenders overall

German visitors accounted for 18.5 percent of foreign tourist spending in Italy in 2022, making Germans the biggest contributors to the country’s coffers, according to a recent Bank of Italy report.

German tourists spent a total of 8.2 billion euros in Italy last year – a 114.8 percent increase on their 2021 spending. 

READ ALSO: Nine alternative places to visit in Italy in 2023

Americans, meanwhile, came in second place, contributing 10.6 percent of the total with 4.7 billion euros; a whopping 255 percent hike on the amount spent in 2021.

Such sharp increases reflect the rapid acceleration in foreign travel that took place between 2021 and 2022 as Covid restrictions were lifted and international tourism resumed.

Tourists sunbathe Sicily’s Isola dei Conigli (Rabbit Island). Photo by Alberto PIZZOLI / AFP.

Germans make up the largest share of foreign visitors

The number of German tourists who visited Italy in 2021 – the most recent year for which official statistics are available – was 8.9 million, according to Italian government figures. 

Italy’s Germany tourist numbers fell by more than half from 12.4 million in 2019 to 5.3 million in 2020 as the pandemic hit; so its numbers were seeing a slow but steady recovery as of 2021.

In the years leading up to and during the pandemic, Germany has consistently supplied the highest number of tourists to Italy of any foreign country.

MAP: Which regions of Italy have the most Blue Flag beaches in 2023?

The US is still playing catch-up from the pandemic

Pre-pandemic, the US came second only to Germany in terms of the number of foreign tourists visiting Italy annually.

Over 6 million Americans travelled on holiday to Italy in 2019; around half the number of German tourists, and the second highest number in total, with France coming in third with 4.7 million.

Tourists walk across St. Mark’s square in Venice on July 31st, 2023. Photo by ANDREA PATTARO / AFP.

That number plummeted to just over 407,000 American tourists visiting Italy in 2020. In 2021, the number was just under 1.3 million.

That relegates the US to fourth place as of 2021, after France (2.5 million) and Switzerland (2.2 million).

Visitors from Germany made up around 33 percent of all foreign tourists coming to Italy in 2021, according to official data; while US visitors made up 4.8 percent.

A US rebound in 2023?

While it’s still too early to know whether the US will reclaim the second spot in 2023, the signs look good: in a widely-cited survey made at the end of last year, 75 percent of Americans who said they planned to go on holiday to Europe this summer listed Italy as their number one destination.

“At the end of July we recorded a traditional, massive US presence,” Giuseppe Guida, mayor of the popular tourist town of Positano on the Amalfi Coast, told reporters.

“From April 1st to the end of July, 90 percent of the tourists in our facilities were foreigners, said Amalfi mayor Daniele Milano, adding that “the largest portion of this 90 percent is represented by Americans.”

Holidaymakers sunbathe on the Amalfi coast in southern Italy. Photo by Filippo MONTEFORTE / AFP.

Correction: The original version of this article said that Germans spent 8.2 million euros and Americans 4.7 million euros in 2022; the article was updated on September 6th to reflect the true figures of 8.2 billion euros and 4.7 billion euros.

By Elaine Allaby and Clare Speak

Member comments

  1. This article says that German tourists spent a total of €8.2 million in 2022, a 114.8% increase over 2021. So this means that they spent around €3.9M in 2021. You also say that, in 2021, 8.9 million German tourists visited Italy. So each German tourist spent €0.44? Also, the total spending from foreign tourist in Italy was €21 billion ( and 42.3 billion in 2022 according to Statistica.com). But the article says that Germany made up 18.5% of the total foreign tourist spending. I’m confused.

Log in here to leave a comment.
Become a Member to leave a comment.
For members

TOURISM

Flights, hotels, beaches: How the cost of travel to Italy is rising this summer

Inflation may now be falling but the price of a summer holiday in Italy has risen again - by up to 20 percent compared to last year.

Published: 24 June 2024 10:53 CEST
Flights, hotels, beaches: How the cost of travel to Italy is rising this summer

Italian consumer rights groups said last year that the summer of 2023 would be remembered as “the most expensive ever” for travel. But 2024 has already smashed that record, according to the latest price surveys.

The rising cost of air fares, ferry tickets, hotels, restaurants and beach clubs add up to mean a holiday in Italy will be 15-20 percent more expensive this summer compared to last year, according to a survey conducted by the Assoutenti consumer research centre in June.

While price rises in recent years have been attributed to Covid and rising inflation, which is no longer thought to be a factor, this year Assoutenti said high demand was pushing up prices amid the post-pandemic tourism boom.

Prices in Italy were “out of control as a consequence of the resumption of tourism, after the stop imposed by Covid, and the record number of foreign visitors recorded in the last year,” the survey’s authors wrote, calling on the government to take measures to contain price increases.

READ ALSO: ltaly set for summer tourism boom as bookings increase again

They warned that more Italian families were likely to “give up the summer holidays this year, not being able to face an expense that increases from year to year,” and that those who do travel may book shorter trips to keep costs down.

Some 6.5 million Italians say they won’t be going on holiday this summer at all, with half citing economic difficulties, according to a separate survey commissioned by price comparison website Facile.it.

Meanwhile, there had been a nine percent increase this year in applications for personal loans for travel purposes, the survey found.

Flight prices

One of the biggest factors was the cost of air fares, as both domestic and international flights to and from Italy were found to be more expensive again this year.

While the cost of flights between European countries had fallen slightly following inflation-driven price hikes in 2023, Italy was bucking the trend.

Italy’s flight costs had risen instead, according to recent analysis in Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera, with the average price of a summer flight between Italy and the rest of Europe up by seven percent and domestic flights by 21 percent.

READ ALSO: Why are flight prices higher in Italy than the rest of Europe this summer?

Industry sources suggest the price increase is again down to unprecedented demand, while consumer groups say the main culprit is a lack of competition on the Italian market.

Transport costs

There were price hikes too for those using other modes of transport, with the rising cost of fuel and motorway tolls in Italy named as another contributing factor in the Assoutenti survey.

Ferry tickets were also more expensive, it found, with the average increase this August at +6.3 percent compared to 2023.

Hotels and B&Bs

For a family of four, the Assoutenti survey found the most expensive place to stay in Italy this summer was Porto Cervo, Sardinia, where the average price of a week’s three-star accommodation in August came to 3,500 euros.

The cheapest options were found to be Bibione, outside Venice (872 euros) and Rapallo in Liguria (909).

READ ALSO: Tourist tax: How much is it increasing in Italy’s cities this year?

The cost of accommodation at coastal destinations had risen by 23 percent on average overall, a separate survey by consumer group Altroconsumo found.

Hotels in cities were found to be a less expensive option, with most Italian families heading for the beach or mountains to escape the heat.

Restaurants

Adding to the overall cost, prices also continued to rise this year at restaurants in holiday resorts and at beach clubs: Assoutenti recorded an average increase for the catering sector of +3.5 percent on 2023.

Beaches

Renting sunbeds and umbrellas at Italy’s beach clubs is seen as a necessity by many Italian families – and often by international visitors too, given the lack of free options in many areas.

This too was becoming more expensive in 2024, with the average daily rate for a slot at one of Italy’s private beach clubs up by more than five percent on last year. Prices had also risen by as much as 11 percent between 2022 and 2023.

Beachgoers can now expect to pay around €30-35 for two sun loungers and a beach umbrella for the day on average, though prices can rise as high as €90 in Salento and €120 in parts of Sardinia.

Both private and free-access beaches in Italy also increasingly require advance booking due to higher demand.

SHOW COMMENTS