Banca d'Italia has been conducting since 1996 a survey on international tourism primarily to collect information for compiling the 'Travel' item (which includes goods and services acquired from an economy by non-residents during visits to that economy) and the 'Passenger transport services' item in Italy's balance of payments, in line with the methodological conventions laid out in the sixth edition of the IMF's manual (BPM6). The survey is based on interviews and counts of resident and non-resident travellers at the Italian borders (road and rail crossings, international ports and airports); it is integrated with administrative data and, since end-2020, with mobile phone data, where available.
The survey also serves as a useful database for operators in the tourism sector and researchers, thanks to the wide range of analytical data provided alongside those gathered strictly for balance of payment requirements. The data are available on this website both in aggregate form and as microdata.
Monthly brief on international tourism
Last March, Italy's tourism balance of payments was in surplus by €0.6 billion, as in the same month of 2024. Both inbound tourism expenditure (3.2 billion) and outbound tourism expenditure (2.6 billion) increased compared to the same period in 2024 (by around 7 and 8 percent, respectively), even though last year the Easter break happened at the end of March.
Overall, in the first quarter of 2025 both inbound and outbound expenditure grew again year on year (Fig. 1), mainly due to the further increase in holiday travel. Spending by foreigners in Italy (on the rise by around 6 percent) benefited mainly from the growth in overnight stays (and thus in per capita spending); also the increase in spending by Italian travellers abroad (by about 5 percent) was driven almost entirely by higher per capita spending, which, however, only to a small extent reflected a greater number of overnight stays. Growth in tourism receipts was due to a substantially similar extent to both travellers from non-EU and from EU countries (in both cases, by more than 6 percent; Fig. 2, left panel). On the other hand, tourism expenditures grew significantly more in non-EU destinations than in EU countries (around 7 versus 3 per cent, respectively; Fig. 2, right panel).
Fig. 1 - Italy's inbound and outbound tourism expenditure
(3-month moving averages; year-on-year percentage changes)
Fig. 2 - Italy's inbound and outbound tourism expenditure by geographical area
(3-month moving averages; year-on-year percentage changes)
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