La spiaggia dei gabbiani

Tourism in Italy is one of the largest economic sectors of the country. With 61,5 million international tourists in 2025, Italy is the fifth-most visited country in international tourism arrivals. According to 2018 estimates by the Bank of Italy, the tourism sector directly generates more than five per cent of the national GDP (13 per cent when also considering the indirectly generated GDP) and represents over six per cent of the employed. As of 2023, Italy is the world's ninth-largest travel and tourism market, with the sector contributing approximately $231.3 billion to the country's GDP. The first people to visit the Italian peninsula for tourism were aristocrats on the Grand Tour, which began in the 17th century and flourished n the 18th and 19th centuries. During this period, European aristocrats, many of them British and French, travelled throughout Europe. Italy's main tourist attractions include its culture, cuisine, fashion, architecture, and art. It is also a popular destination for Christmas holidays. Winter and summer tourism are present in many locations in the Alps and the Apennines, while seaside tourism is widespread in coastal locations along the Mediterranean Sea. Small Italian villages of historical and artistic interest are promoted through the association I Borghi più belli d'Italia (literally "The Most Beautiful Villages of Italy"). Italy is the country with the highest number of UNESCO World Heritage Sites in the world (61). Out of Italy's 61 heritage sites, 55 are cultural and 6 are natural. According to ISTAT, in 2017, there were 32,988 hotels with 1,133,452 rooms and 2,239,446 beds. As for non-hotel facilities (campsites, tourist villages, accommodations for rent, agritourism, etc.), in 2017 their number was 171,915 with 2,798,352 beds. The tourist flow is concentrated in coastal resorts, which account for 53 percent of the total. The best-equipped Italian municipalities are Grosseto for farmhouses, with 217 facilities; Vieste for campsites and tourist villages, with 84; and Cortina d’Ampezzo for mountain huts, with 20.