€11.6 billion of foreign spending in one half-year, a €185 billion national engine, and the rate reset the Jubilee left behind.
Rome sits atop the strongest national tourism economy in Europe: Italy’s €185 billion year, with the capital as its premium showcase and price-setter.
Rome, boosted by the Jubilee, passed 15 million foreign arrivals in the first half of 2025 alone, generating €11.6 billion in tourism spending — a half-year figure larger than most European capitals’ full year.
National frame: international visitor spending hit a record €60.4 billion in 2025 (up from €55.2bn), domestic added €124.6 billion — a €185 billion total, with tourism at €237.4 billion or 10.8% of Italian GDP and 3.2 million jobs.
The average foreign traveler in Italy spends €930 per trip — 42% on accommodation, 26% on food and drink, 18% on shopping and culture — a mix Rome’s palace-hotel boom is engineered to lift.
Rome’s pricing power moved up a tier: Jubilee-year rates reset the luxury baseline (new palazzo hotels from €800–1,200), and the pipeline (Hyatt, Thompson, Corinthia) is betting the reset holds.
The forward ledger: WTTC projects Italian tourism at €282.6 billion by 2035 — and Rome hosted the council’s 25th Global Summit in September 2025, the industry literally holding its AGM in the capital.
The Jubilee was a stress test Rome passed with margin: the city absorbed record demand and discovered it could charge more for it. That discovery is now embedded in every pro-forma from the Pantheon to Termini. The open question is 2026 — the first ordinary year after an extraordinary one. If rates hold without the Holy Door, Rome will have proven that scarcity, not spectacle, was the product all along.
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