General Information Italy Tourism
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Tourism in Italy: With more than 43.7 million tourists a year, Italy is the fourth highest tourist earner, and fifth most visited country in the world, behind France (76.0 million), Spain (55.6 million), United States (49.4 million), and China (46.8). People mainly come to Italy for its rich art, cuisine, history, fashion and culture, its beautiful coastline and beaches, its mountains, and priceless ancient monuments, especially those from the Greek civilization and Roman civilization. Tourism is one of Italy's fastest growing and most profitable industrial sectors, with an estimated revenue of $42.7 billion.
Apart from Rome, Milan, Venice and Florence are the top destinations for tourism in Italy. Other major tourist locations include Turin, Naples, Padua, Bologna, Perugia, Genoa, Sicily, Sardinia, Salento and Cinque Terre. Two factors in each of these locations are history and geography. The Roman Empire, middle ages, and renaissance have left many cultural artifacts for the Italian tourist industry to use. Many northern cities are also able to use the Alps as an attraction for winter sports, while coastal southern cities have the Mediterranean Sea to draw tourists looking for sun.
Italy is home to forty four UNESCO World Heritage Sites, more than any other country, including many entire cities such as Verona, Siena, Vicenza, Ferrara, San Gimignano, and Urbino. Ravenna hosts an unprecedented eight different internationally recognized sites.
In Italy there is a broad variety of hotels, going from 1-5 stars. There were 33,557 hotels with 1,020,000 rooms and 2,028,000 beds. The number of hotels, according to their rating, went like this:
Apart from Rome, Milan, Venice and Florence are the top destinations for tourism in Italy. Other major tourist locations include Turin, Naples, Padua, Bologna, Perugia, Genoa, Sicily, Sardinia, Salento and Cinque Terre. Two factors in each of these locations are history and geography. The Roman Empire, middle ages, and renaissance have left many cultural artifacts for the Italian tourist industry to use. Many northern cities are also able to use the Alps as an attraction for winter sports, while coastal southern cities have the Mediterranean Sea to draw tourists looking for sun.
Italy is home to forty four UNESCO World Heritage Sites, more than any other country, including many entire cities such as Verona, Siena, Vicenza, Ferrara, San Gimignano, and Urbino. Ravenna hosts an unprecedented eight different internationally recognized sites.
In Italy there is a broad variety of hotels, going from 1-5 stars. There were 33,557 hotels with 1,020,000 rooms and 2,028,000 beds. The number of hotels, according to their rating, went like this:
- 7-star hotels: 1 with 25 rooms (the Town House Galleria located in Milan).
- 5-star hotels: 232 with 20,686 rooms and 43,150 beds.
- 4-star hotels: nearly 3,700 with 247,000 rooms and 502,000 beds.
- 3-star hotels: 14,500 with 483,000 rooms and 940,000 beds.
- 2-star hotels: 5,000 with 116,000 beds.
- 1-star hotels: 2,000 with 157,000 beds.
