Suppose you were one of the 146 million people who visited Italy’s Mediterranean coastline, stunning wine country, or historic cities this year. In that case, you’ll be part of history. According to new data from the World Travel & Tourism Council, in 2025, the country is on track for its busiest year ever, with tourism growing faster than almost every other sector of its economy.
This marks the continuation of a trend that’s been building since 2023, post-pandemic, and the growth isn’t just concentrated in Rome or Venice; even smaller coastal towns and inland regions are now reporting spikes in arrivals.
While some side effects of this surge are objectively good, international visitor spending is projected to hit a record €60.4 billion, for example, others are starting to put visible pressure on local infrastructure and daily life in places that were already struggling to keep up with the seasonal influx of visitors.
How does Italy plan to handle all of this popularity, and what kind of impact might this have in the coming years? Here are a few key points to keep in mind about this sudden 4.7% increase in visitors before you plan your next trip.
Shoulder Season Is the New Summer
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It’s hard to argue against spending your summer vacation with your toes dipped along the turquoise waters of Portofino, or out on a sailboat just offshore of the Amalfi Coast, visitor statistics easily show that millions of people agree. But the tourists who used to mostly arrive during the peak summer months of July and August are now arriving in Italy earlier and staying later. In April 2025 alone, government statistics reported that Italy welcomed over 10.6 million visitors, a notable 13% increase from April 2024. The same month, airport passenger volume also rose over 7%.
Rewind two more months further back, and foreign spending grew by 8.5% between February and April 2025, proof that many tourists who come to Italy for the food, the sights, and the history, and aren’t as worried about waiting until beach season to take a trip. In fact, Italy is quickly becoming a near year-round destination, offering a southern European version of winter that is much milder than in many other parts of the continent and compared to North America.
Smaller Regions Are Getting in on the Surge
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Venice, Rome, Florence, the usual hotspots will continue to be full of visitors, souvenir shops, and crowded cafés, no doubt. But what’s changing is that many tourists are now branching out to lesser-known regions, secondary cities, and road-tripping to more off-the-beaten-path towns and villages.
Places like Umbria, Puglia, and Le Marche are on the rise in popularity, with each recording a clear increase in the number of tourists over the past year. This increase applies to both international and domestic travelers and points to a growing preference for more space, easier logistics, and fewer crowds than you might find at the Trevi Fountain in Rome or the Ponte Vecchio in Florence.
While new tourist money can help local economies, not all smaller towns are well-equipped to handle the surge. Sirmione, a small town on Lake Garda, is a clear example, over the long holiday weekend in May, the town of just 8,000 residents had nearly 75,000 visitors arrive nearly at once, causing gridlock, long waits to reach the town center, and completely overwhelming the narrow streets and local transport. Obviously, this kind of tourist tsunami is unsustainable, and it’s leading communities to adopt measures that will hopefully prevent this level of congestion from happening again.
Airports, Roads, and Historic Centers Are Also Overloaded
Even though some tourists are heading to a broader array of places, the country is still on pace to welcome most of those 146 million visitors in 2025 via its major international airports, and with a combination of aging terminals, limited runway capacity, and general infrastructure that were not designed for this level of traffic, passenger bottlenecks and major delays are becoming more and more frequent.
In the popular destination of Cinque Terre, the narrow walkways, limited train platform capacity, and few alternative transport options are ill-equipped to accommodate the daily flow of visitors. Similarly, in Rome, the 2025 Jubilee has drawn extra tourist traffic into the historic center and to the major attractions, worsening congestion in areas that already see heavy foot traffic in normal years.
For all the revenue this year’s surge in arrivals has brought, the tourism industry alone will support about 3.2 million jobs in 2025, one thing remains clear: the country’s infrastructure is hitting limits that can no longer be ignored.
Local Housing Challenges Intensify
Perhaps one of the most obvious issues with such a rapid increase in visitors is that the 146 million tourists expected to travel to Italy in 2025 need a place to sleep. In many cities and coastal towns, this has become a significant point of contention between locals and tourists, as many homes once lived in by locals have been converted into Airbnbs or other types of short-term rentals, with the side effect of eventually leaving many neighborhoods with fewer permanent residents, especially in areas where hotel infrastructure is sparse.
In central Florence, more than 20% of homes are now devoted to tourist rentals, and cities like Rome and Naples have seen long-term apartment rental prices climb exponentially as fewer homes remain available for locals. The government has begun cracking down on unregistered properties, and 2025 marks the first year that Italy has implemented a national registration requirement for all short-term rentals.
Still, much of the damage has already been done, and neighborhoods in many cities are dealing with the fallout of a shrinking pool of full-time residents, driven by fewer long-term housing options.
Bottom Line
An Italian vacation will always be a good idea. Still, now more than ever, you should plan your trip a bit more carefully to ensure that you aren’t arriving at overcrowded sites at peak hours or scrambling for last-minute accommodations. Italy’s record-breaking tourist arrivals in 2025 are reshaping many aspects of the country’s operations, and factoring these changes into your upcoming trip plans will help ensure that your 2026 vacation goes off a bit more smoothly.