A record 22.9 million arrivals, 33 million Jubilee pilgrims, and the American passport second only to the Italian — Rome’s biggest year on record.
Rome’s Jubilee year delivered the largest single-year visitor surge in the city’s recorded history — and the American passport stamped itself second only to the Italian.
The Lazio Bilateral Tourism Board counts 22.9 million arrivals and 52.92 million overnight stays in 2025 — both records, surpassing 2024 (which itself saw about 22 million). International arrivals hit 12 million, up 3.4%.
The Vatican reports an estimated 33 million Jubilee participants — more than 90,000 people a day through the Holy Doors and papal events, with 13 million during the Jubilee of Young People alone (July 21 – August 10).
The United States ranked first among foreign passports, nearly 13% of registered pilgrims — confirming the American market as Rome’s structural number one, mirrored in Fiumicino’s 4.7-million North American traffic.
Europe holds the depth: Germany, France, Spain and the UK fill the short-haul tables, while Asia rebuilt — Korea and Japan driving FCO’s 16% Asian growth.
The quiet shift: longer stays. Overnight growth (+2.87%) nearly matched arrivals growth (+3.42%) — the administration’s goal of turning record numbers into stable value is showing up in the nights column.
A Jubilee year is Rome’s cheat code — but cheat codes reveal the real game. The 2025 surge proved two things: that Rome’s ceiling is nowhere in sight (the city absorbed 33 million pilgrims on top of record tourism), and that the American passport has become the Eternal City’s second nationality. The test of 2026 is retention: if the pilgrims’ friends come back without a Holy Door to walk through, the surge becomes a step-change.
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