Incoming visitors spent €39.1 billion in Italy last year, almost €3 billion more than in 2016, according to Banca d'Italia data presented by the International Centre for Studies on Tourism Economics (Ciset) this week at a conference on Italy's international tourism industry in Venice. Factoring in the indirect and knock-on benefits, Ciset calculates that international tourists added €41.3 billion to the Italian economy, equivalent to boosting the GDP by 1.5 percent. 

Rome, already Italy's biggest destination, was the chief beneficiary of the boom: the capital's tourist takings rose by 20.3 percent last year, to €6.74 billion. Italy's northern tourist hotspot, Venice, registered a 19.4 percent increase in spending, while Naples, gateway to many of the attractions of the south, saw a rise of 17.8 percent.