Italian Tourism Trends for 2025: What Travellers Are Saying

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As the country with the most UNESCO sites in the world, Italy has long been a global leader in cultural tourism. But new data reveals how traveller behaviour is starting to shift. Data Appeal’s latest Cultural Tourism Report, based on an analysis of over 9.2 million digital footprints across more than 130 online platforms, offers deep insight into how tourists are interacting with Italy's museums, monuments, and cultural landmarks, using sentiment analysis, review trends, and booking patterns to paint a compelling picture of where Italian tourism is heading.

How Digital Is Driving the Direction of Travel

For today’s traveller, digital footprints are far more influential than guidebooks in determining how we travel. Guest reviews on platforms like Google, TripAdvisor, and Airbnb, and social posts on platforms like Facebook, Instagram and TikTok, communicate the value of commodified experiences far more effectively than traditional advertising can. The data backs this up: according to a recent report by Reputation, 54% of customers trust online reviews more than the advice of family and friends, company marketing efforts, the media, and influencer opinions. 

The Italian Cultural Tourism in Italy Report for 2025 shows that cultural attractions in Italy see a clear spike in online reviews around major holidays such as Easter, May 1st, and Ferragosto. Given that these moments coincide with tourism surges in Italy’s major artistic cities like Rome, Florence, and Venice, this highlights how important it is for tour operators to invest in timely digital engagement and review management to remain visible during peak periods.

Who Is Leaving These Reviews?

Italy’s domestic market is by far the most vocal, with Italians leaving 34.8% of all digital footprints across the country’s cultural attractions. However, Italians are also the third most critical of the country’s cultural tourism sector, averaging a sentiment score of 83.2/100. 

For context, sentiment scores reveal how visitors feel about their experiences, and Italian cultural attractions are scoring high. The average sentiment rating for Italian cultural destinations sits at 86/100, a modest but important increase from 2023.

Of the 10 nationalities that leave the largest digital footprint, the Swiss are the second most critical (with a sentiment score of 82.7/100) and the Spanish are the most critical (81.6/100). Tourists from the USA, by contrast, report the highest rates of satisfaction, with an average sentiment score of 86.6/100—slightly higher than tourists from Poland (85.7/100) and the UK (85.2/100). 

Italy’s Most Reviewed Cultural Attractions in 2024

Rome still reigns supreme as Italy’s cultural capital, with six of the ten most reviewed attractions located in the Eternal City. The Report names the Colosseum, Trevi Fountain, and Pantheon as the three most reviewed cultural attractions and Florence’s Uffizi Galleries, Verona’s House of Juliet, and Turin’s Egyptian Museum as the three most reviewed museums. Interestingly, the report omits the Vatican Museums, one of the world’s most visited museums, perhaps because they belong within an independent city state.

Where Travellers in Italy Are Happiest

Across the board, review analysis for 2024 shows that tourists consistently praise Italy's architectural beauty, scenic settings, and historical significance. Factors such as ambiance, spaciousness, and the centrality of cultural attractions all scored highly on the sentiment scale, and drove much of the discussion online. 

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Tourists in Rome’s Piazza Navona.

Italy’s cultural attractions also continued to score very highly in sentiment analyses, averaging a remarkable 92.3/100 (up 0.1% from 2023). By comparison, Italy’s restaurants and eateries scored 86.6, hospitality scored 84, and short-stay accommodation (like Airbnbs) scored 86.9.

Breaking it down by destination, we find that visitors in 2024 were happiest with the cultural attractions of Rome (93.4), Venice (92.7), Florence (91.4) and Naples (91). In terms of satisfaction with their overall experience, however, the most popular city was Florence (86.7), followed by Naples (85.8), Rome (85.4) and Venice (85.3). It will be interesting to see how Rome fares in 2025, having had to accommodate a huge influx of Jubilee-related tourism.

Where Italian Tourism Falls Short

However, there are still areas of concern. Recurring criticisms centre around organisation, overcrowding, safety, and unclear visitor information. The sentiment score for the organisation of Italian cultural tourism was a woeful 32.1/100 for 2024, something that will come as no surprise to those who work in the sector.

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Crowd of people in a museum or exhibition hall, looking at displays.

Snapping a selfie in front of the Trevi Fountain in 2023

Plywood pool in front of the Trevi Fountain during restoration works in late 2024 (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Nowhere is Italy’s chronic inability to manage its cultural offerings more conspicuous than the Vatican Museums, something especially surprising given that 2025 marks a Jubilee Year and a surge in demand for Vatican tours and tickets. 

Here’s an illustrative example. Tour operators can purchase a ticket which grants their guests direct access from the Sistine Chapel to St Peter’s Basilica through a “secret passageway”, meaning there’s no need to exit the Vatican Museums and line up again for the basilica. This ticket is neither advertised on nor sold through the Vatican Museums’ official website but through a separate domain associated with St Peter’s Basilica. 

Should you manage to purchase these tickets, you will receive a confirmation email with a multipage PDF attached. But this confirmation PDF is not your ticket. Your actual ticket is a QR code (one per guest), which will be sent to your device 48 hours before your scheduled visit. In theory, you do not have to print these QR codes but can just show them to the security guard from your smart device. Yet some guards will still insist on seeing them printed, while others will ask to see the confirmation PDF (despite this document stating that it does not constitute an entry ticket). 

Should you manage to get through the security check and QR code scan at the Sistine Chapel, expect to repeat the same procedure a couple of minutes later with staff from St Peter’s Basilica at the end of the secret passageway. Why? Because the staff at the Vatican Museums neither communicate nor share information with the staff from St Peter’s Basilica. 

Consider the impression this leaves on tourists—paying customers—who waste so much time standing in line waiting for staff to double or even triple-check their tickets when they could instead spend more time admiring art and architecture. The Colosseum is just as culpable, and for tourism destinations looking to improve their reputation, addressing these issues is critical.

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Guiding inside the Vatican Museums: an increasingly fraught logistical challenge

Booking Trends: Direct Is In

The data reveals a shift in booking behavior. While OTA (Online Travel Agency) saturation has declined, average prices have gone up by 6% to 7%. This suggests that demand remains strong, but travellers are increasingly seeking direct booking options, likely in search of better deals or more personal experiences. 

Cultural sites and tour operators can benefit by investing in user-friendly websites, exclusive offers, and better customer support to encourage direct reservations.

What This Means for 2025 Travel in Italy

Italy’s international cultural appeal shows no sign of fading, but digital reputation and user experience are more critical than ever. As the surprise emergence of Florence’s Leonardo Da’ Vinci Museum into the five best-reviewed museums shows, even smaller, lesser-known institutions can rise in popularity with consistently high ratings and strategic digital marketing. 

Travellers are prioritising authenticity, convenience, and quality experiences—and the data shows they’re increasingly willing to share their feedback online. As the travel industry evolves, cultural operators and destinations must embrace feedback, foster engagement, and make the visitor experience as seamless as it is memorable.

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Alexander Meddings
Check iconVerified Writer
Alexander Meddings is a professional copywriter and postgraduate in Roman history from the University of Oxford. After graduating with his MPhil, he moved to Florence and then Rome to carry out his research on the ground and pursue his passion at the source. He now works in travel, as a writer and content consultant, and in education as a university lecturer and translator.
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