Venice is the most popular and most booked Italian city by foreign tourists. The city tops the rankings of Italian destinations searched for by international visitors according to a hotel comparison website Trivago.it.
According to the website the lagoon city boasts the highest percentage of internet searches from abroad – as much as 64% compared to 36% of searches for other Italian destinations.
It is not only Venice, but also the Veneto region, that gains the top spot in the top 10 most sought after regions at international level (49.3%). Lido di Jesolo, in the Province of Venice, on the other hand, comes in second place in the ranking of the most sought after destinations, with 54% of searches by foreigners, mainly Germans and Austrians.
Moreover, according to the Centre for the Study of Chartered Accountants of Venice, Venice is also the city with the highest tourist density in Italy. The city stands out thanks to an average of 15.84 tourists per inhabitant. Venice hosts almost 10,000 arrivals per square kilometre, or 26,000 when excluding the parts covered by water.
The second place in the rankings of the cities most densely populated by tourists is taken by Florence, with 8.9 tourists per inhabitant, followed by Rome with 4.5 and Milan, which hosts an average of 3.4 tourists per inhabitant.
Rome, always the most searched Italian destination confirms its appeal among the national audience, with 54% of domestic searches, compared to 46% from foreigners, which is a similar result to Milan.
In 2013, the most sought after destination by the Italians was, however, Assisi with 95%. The city of Saint Francis has seen a large number of visitors from the local populace especially after the election of the new Pope. Assisi took the place of Gallipoli which, compared to the last year, records 91.6% of domestic searches and 8.4% of searches from abroad, much like Riccione.
At the regional level searches come predominantly from the domestic market, with the highest percentage recorded by Puglia (89.8% compared to 10.2% in foreign demand).