Luxury tourism in Italy is gaining increasing weight in the Italian economy. In 2025, five-star hotels and five-star luxury hotels generated 10.4 billion euros in direct tourist spending. This figure accounts for 17.3 percent of the total turnover of the hotel sector, estimated at just over 60 billion euros.
The data is part of a study by the Demoskopika institute, focused on the high-end segment. According to the study, the gap with mid-range accommodation is significant: each night spent in a luxury hotel generates an average of 702 euros in tourist spending. The average for the hotel sector as a whole is 209 euros.
The data show a market that has expanded much faster than the rest of Italian hospitality. Between 2008 and 2025, nights spent in luxury hotels rose by 111.1 percent. Across all hotel structures, growth was only 14.5 percent.
In 2025 alone, nights spent in five-star establishments reached almost 14.9 million, with more than 4.9 million arrivals. Compared with 2024, arrivals rose by 5 percent and nights spent by 5.7 percent. This expansion confirms the growing role of international clients with greater purchasing power.
At the same time, it highlights a territorial distribution that is still very uneven. The map of high-end hospitality in Italy is dominated by a few large centers. According to the Elite Index (Exclusive Luxury & International Tourism Evaluation) prepared by Demoskopika, the leading regions are Lazio, Trentino-Alto Adige, Campania, Valle d'Aosta and Sardinia.
Lazio also ranks first for economic value: in 2025 it is estimated to have generated 2.3 billion euros in direct tourist spending in the luxury segment, or 21.7 percent of the national total. It is followed by Trentino-Alto Adige with 1.7 billion, Veneto with 1.4 billion, Lombardy with 1.3 billion and Tuscany with 1 billion.
At the provincial level, Rome is the main destination and alone accounts for 19.7 percent of nights spent in high-end hotels. Together with Bolzano, Venice, Florence and Milan, it concentrates 53.4 percent of nights spent across the country. ## Provinces without luxury hotels and territorial concentration If the focus is expanded to the 17 main luxury centers identified by the study, the share rises to 79.2 percent.
Another figure makes the territorial inequality even clearer: 25 Italian provinces have no five-star hotel at all. In 2025 there were 809 structures in this category, 38 more than the previous year, with almost 110 thousand beds. However, they represent only 4.8 percent of national hotel capacity.
The growth of luxury tourism is part of an increasingly fierce European competition, aimed at high-spending travelers. Italy starts from a strong position in terms of the size of its tourism market: according to Eurostat, in 2025 it recorded around 535 million nights spent across all types of accommodation.
Spain recorded 513 million, France 472 million and Germany 440 million. Together, these four countries account for more than 60 percent of nights spent in the European Union. The comparison changes, however, when tourism intensity is taken into account, that is, the number of nights spent relative to population: Spain records 10.4 nights per resident, compared with 9.1 in Italy and 6.9 in France.
Italy is therefore one of the main continental markets in terms of tourism volume. There is still room to increase the economic value generated by each visitor and to strengthen the ability to attract high-level stays. Data on hotel investment also confirm how competitive the sector is.
According to the European report by BNP Paribas Real Estate on the hotel market in 2025, Spain, the United Kingdom, France and Italy together accounted for more than half of European hotel investment. Spain recorded investments of 3.3 billion euros, the United Kingdom 4 billion, while Italy maintained a high volume, around 1.8 billion.
The Italian market accounts for 9 percent of European hotel investment, compared with 16.4 percent for Spain and 14.9 percent for France. Another interesting element comes from the performance of high-end structures: in the European market in 2025, revenue per available room (RevPAR) rose by 3.8 percent in the high-end segment.
In budget hotels it fell by 1.9 percent. This shows stronger demand in the high-end segment than in the cheaper categories, at a time when household purchasing power continues to influence travel choices. Rising revenue does not automatically translate into a more balanced distribution of opportunities.
Eleven international markets that Demoskopika considers the main drivers of spending — Germany, the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Switzerland, Austria, Spain, the Netherlands, Canada, Australia and Japan — account for 62.2 percent of foreign nights spent in Italian hotels.
Across all hotel structures, these visitors are estimated to have generated a turnover of 21.4 billion euros in 2025, taking into account the various components of tourist spending. Germany and the United States are the two leading markets, with 6.39 and 4.69 billion respectively.
For Demoskopika, the issue is not only to increase the number of luxury hotels, but to make better use of those that already exist and to extend their operating season. According to the study, the bed occupancy rate in high-end structures remains well below the national average of 37.1 percent.
This is especially true in Southern Italy, where supply is newer or highly seasonal. Transport links, services and efforts to reduce seasonality therefore become decisive factors in expanding the map of luxury destinations beyond the main art cities and already established resorts.
The growth of this segment represents an opportunity for Italy, but the challenge will be to turn international appeal into a more widely shared economic benefit across the whole country.