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Tourism

Popular destination

Italy’s popularity as a tourism destination is undisputed, receiving as it does around 37 million visitors a year. This makes Italy the fifth most visited tourism destination in the world, following after France, Spain, the United States and China. Italy’s tourism market is enjoying the further growth that comes with being a main hub for low-cost airlines, strengthening the industry and opening up different parts of the country to overseas visitors and property buyers.

City and countryside

Much of Italy’s appeal to tourists is focused on its world-famous cities, such as Rome, Florence, Venice and Milan. However it has a number of popular coastal and rural regions, such as the traditionally popular Tuscany, a favourite of expatriates but now expensive enough to put off many property investors; the up-and-coming Abruzzo region, only now beginning to emerge on the tourism map; and the once poor but now increasingly popular regions in the south of the country.

Domestic tourism

Italy has a strong tradition of enjoying holidays, and many Italians prefer to stay within their own country to do this. This gives buy-to-let investors an alternative market to consider, but since a foreigner trying to market an Italian property to the Italian public presents its own difficulties, it may be advisable for the investor to merely be aware of the areas popular with the Italians. Properties in areas within convenient driving distance of the large cities may have strong investment potential, for example. Of the overseas visitors, the main countries of origin are Germany, France, the UK and the USA.

Affluent visitors

On the whole, visitors to Italy tend to be comparatively wealthy and discerning. Holidays are often based around enjoying a good quality of accommodation, dining, shopping and culture. Although property prices in some areas of the country are relatively high, such properties will also have the potential to achieve good rental yields, and some capital gain on resale. However, Italy does have competition from other, cheaper Mediterranean destinations, which is increasing as low-cost flights open up new countries as holiday resorts.

Related items

Documents and Reports

	Italy property investment report (399Kb)
Documents and Reports

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