Italy's high-end hospitality sector is booming, but its rewards are far from evenly spread. In 2025, five-star and five-star luxury hotels generated €10.4 billion in direct tourist spending, equivalent to 17.3% of the entire Italian hotel sector's turnover, which is estimated at just over €60 billion. The gap with mid-range accommodation is stark: a single overnight stay in a luxury hotel yields an average of €702 in tourist spending, compared with €209 for the average hotel stay.
The figures come from a study by the Demoskopika institute, which focuses on the luxury segment and was previewed by ANSA. They show a market that has expanded far more rapidly than the rest of Italian hospitality. Between 2008 and 2025, overnight stays in luxury hotels increased by 111.1%, while those in all hotel establishments grew by only 14.5%. In 2025, five-star properties recorded nearly 14.9 million overnight stays, with more than 4.9 million arrivals. Compared with 2024, arrivals were up 5% and overnight stays 5.7%.
A map dominated by a few hubs
Rome leads the ranking, but the overall picture is one of extreme concentration. According to Demoskopika's Elite Index (Exclusive Luxury & International Tourism Evaluation), the top regions are Lazio, Trentino-Alto Adige, Campania, Valle d'Aosta and Sardinia. Lazio alone is estimated to have generated €2.3 billion in luxury tourist spending in 2025, or 21.7% of the national total. It is followed by Trentino-Alto Adige (€1.7 billion), Veneto (€1.4 billion), Lombardy (€1.3 billion) and Tuscany (€1 billion).
At provincial level, Rome accounts for 19.7% of all luxury overnight stays. Together with Bolzano, Venice, Florence and Milan, it concentrates 53.4% of the national total. If the focus is widened to the 17 main luxury hubs identified by the research, the share rises to 79.2%. This leaves the rest of the country—including 25 provinces that have no five-star hotel at all—largely outside the high-end tourism economy.
In 2025, there were 809 five-star establishments in Italy, 38 more than the previous year, offering almost 110,000 beds. Yet they account for only 4.8% of national hotel capacity. The growth in luxury tourism is part of an increasingly competitive European market that is shifting towards high-spending travellers. Italy starts from a position of strength in terms of overall tourism volume: according to Eurostat, in 2025 it recorded around 535 million overnight stays in all types of accommodation, ahead of Spain (513 million), France (472 million) and Germany (440 million). Together, these four countries account for more than 60% of all overnight stays in the European Union.
The comparison changes, however, when tourism intensity is considered—that is, overnight stays relative to population. Spain records 10.4 nights per inhabitant, compared with 9.1 in Italy and 6.9 in France. Italy is therefore one of the main continental markets by volume, but still has room to increase the economic value generated by each visitor and to strengthen its ability to attract high-end stays.
Hotel investment figures also underline the competitive pressure. 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, the United Kingdom €4 billion, while Italy maintained a high volume at around €1.8 billion. The Italian market accounts for 9% of European hotel investment, compared with 16.4% for Spain and 14.9% for France.
Another telling indicator comes from the performance of high-end establishments: in the European market in 2025, revenue per available room (RevPAR) rose by 3.8% in the upscale segment, while it fell by 1.9% in budget hotels. This points to stronger demand in the high-end segment than in cheaper categories, at a time when household purchasing power continues to shape travel choices.
Italy's challenge is to overcome concentration and seasonality. The eleven international markets that Demoskopika considers the main spending catchment areas—Germany, the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Switzerland, Austria, Spain, the Netherlands, Canada, Australia and Japan—account for 62.2% of foreign overnight stays in Italian hotels. Across all hotel establishments, these visitors are estimated to have generated a turnover of €21.4 billion in 2025. Germany and the United States are the top two markets, with €6.39 billion 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 establishments remains well below the national average of 37.1%, especially in southern Italy, where the supply is more recent or highly seasonal. As other European destinations experiment with year-round tourism strategies and sports-based diversification, Italy's luxury sector faces a similar test: can it spread its success beyond the usual hotspots?
