The tourist tax will soar to €760 million (+19%) in 2024. Sorrento is among the top ten.
Revenues from the tourist tax soared in 2024, reaching 760 million euros, excluding Rome Capital (which has a different calculation system) , 19% more than the previous year.
Florence tops the rankings for tourist tax revenue, according to data from the Ministry of Economy and Finance, the Bank of Italy, and ISTAT (National Institute of Statistics). Florence has seen further growth compared to previous years, going from €45.5 million in 2022 to €69.8 million in 2023, and then again, with a 10% increase, to €76.9 million in 2024.
In second place is Milan , which closes the gap with the Tuscan city and reaches 76.5 million euros, with an increase of 14.4 million euros (+23%).
Venice also holds firm third place, although it has slowed down compared to other major art cities and closed 2024 with just under 40 million euros, a 4% increase compared to the previous year.
They are followed by: Trento with 29.7 million, Naples with 19 million euros (+9%), Bologna with 15.4 million (+22%), Rimini with 14.7 million (+28%) and Turin with 10.3 million, compared to 9.8 the previous year.
The smallest municipality among the top ten giants is Sorrento . Despite its population of just over 15,000, the international fame of its coastline has earned it a 9.1 million euro haul—a 32% jump compared to 2023—and has allowed it to surpass even Palermo , which only reached 8.7 million despite a dramatic increase compared to 2023, when tourist overnight stays had brought in 4.8 million.
Also significant were the increases recorded in Genoa (from €5.1 million to €7.3 million), Bolzano (from €961,000 to €1.8 million), Taranto (from €143,000 to €306,000), and Syracuse (from €1.3 million to €2.3 million). Bucking the trend among large Italian cities were Livorno (-17%), Salerno (-10%), Reggio Emilia (-10%), Forlì (-8%), Novara (-5%), and Terni (-2%).
Although the number has increased compared to the past (+379 in 5 years), the local authorities that have actually introduced the tourist tax are a tiny minority: in 2024, there were 1,382, just under a quarter of the 5,700 that would be entitled to do so . "The majority of authorities therefore continue," explains Veronica Potenza, researcher at the Local Authorities Studies Center, who conducted the research, "to forgo potentially substantial sums in the hope of becoming more attractive to tourists, thus meeting the long-standing demands of industry trade associations."
Overall, the municipalities of Northern Italy still account for the lion's share of revenue from the tourist tax.
Accommodation facilities in Northern Italy collected over €450 million, nearly 60% of the total , but Southern Italy is catching up, driven primarily by the excellent performance of the islands (+29%). Overall, 2024 revenues exceeded 2023 revenues in 62% of municipalities.
A worsening was observed in only 374 institutions, more than half of which were in Northern Italy (225). At the provincial level, the revenues of the institutions of Barletta-Andria-Trani (+200%), Bari (+195%), Massa Carrara (+109%), Reggio Calabria (+90%) and Fermo (+76%) increased the most.
On the other hand, in addition to the aforementioned Aosta , the takings of the Cagliari area (-11%), Reggio Emilia (-10%), Parma (-5%), Foggia (-3%), Salerno (-2%) and Ascoli Piceno (-1%) are decreasing.
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