Tourism: a record year for Bologna, with over two million arrivals in 2025.

The IRES Emilia-Romagna Observatory captures the boom in urban tourism: the regional capital is leading the region’s growth, while holiday destinations are shifting
Bologna closed 2025 with an unprecedented figure: over 2.27 million tourist arrivals (+11.3% on 2024), a number that, for the first time, puts it in first place among Emilia-Romagna’s municipalities for arrivals, ahead of Rimini itself. It is the clearest sign of a transformation that the Observatory of the Economy and Labour in Emilia-Romagna, run by IRES, describes in no uncertain terms: urban tourism has become the main driver of growth in the sector, while more traditional models – seaside and spa tourism – are showing signs of strain. It should be noted that Bologna’s lead concerns arrivals, i.e. the number of tourists who spent at least one night in the city, and not total overnight stays: on this front Rimini remains ahead, thanks to the longer average stay typical of seaside tourism. There is also a statistical change to consider: from 2025, regional data include for the first time “other private accommodation” not run on a business basis, a segment in which Bologna is particularly strong thanks to the spread of short-term rentals. That said, the city’s growth remains solid even on a like-for-like basis: overnight stays rose by 9.2% compared to 2024, a much faster pace than Rimini’s (+1.2%).

A record 2025 for the whole of Emilia-Romagna

Bologna’s result is part of an exceptional year for the entire region. In 2025 Emilia-Romagna passed the threshold of 13 million arrivals for the first time (13,231,732, +11.4% on 2024) and 44 million overnight stays (44,170,468, +8.3%). This growth is driven above all by international visitors, who recorded +16.7% in arrivals and +15.4% in overnight stays, now accounting for almost a third of the total (31.5% of arrivals and 31.9% of overnight stays).
Compared with 2019 – already considered a positive benchmark for regional tourism – arrivals are up 14.1%, rising to as much as 33.6% for international visitors alone. Among the fastest-growing nationalities are Germany, France, Switzerland, Poland, Romania and above all the United States, whose arrivals increased by 79.3% compared to 2019. Bucking the trend, however, are the collapse in Russian tourists (-81% in arrivals) and the sharp fall in Chinese visitors (-46.8%), who in 2019 were the third-largest foreign market by arrivals and now rank eleventh.

Cities of art on the rise, coast and spas struggling

Bologna overtaking Rimini is not an isolated event, but the clearest sign of a broader redistribution of tourist flows across the region, described by the Observatory as a genuine “advance of tourism in cities and nature”, while coastal tourism is “facing greater difficulties”. In terms of overnight stays, growth compared to 2019 particularly rewards the cities of art: in addition to Bologna (+42.9%), Modena (+26.2%), Piacenza (+18.9%) and Ferrara (+10.3%) stand out. Conversely, Rimini recorded a 4.3% drop compared to 2019, and among seaside resorts Bellaria-Igea Marina and Gatteo also saw fewer overnight stays. The spa sector, with the exception of Castel San Pietro Terme (+9.6% in overnight stays on 2024), also continues to struggle: Bagno di Romagna lost 9.1% and Salsomaggiore 5.8%. Alongside this geographical redistribution, tourist flows are becoming progressively less seasonal: while in 2019 July and August accounted for 43.8% of annual overnight stays, in 2025 that share fell to 40%, benefiting mainly May, October and December.

The picture across the metropolitan area

Looking at the wider Metropolitan City of Bologna, 2025 brought arrivals to 3,171,453 (+10.7% on 2024) and overnight stays to 7,188,998 (+8.3%). The city of Bologna alone accounts for 71.6% of arrivals and 72.9% of overnight stays across the entire metropolitan area, confirming its role as the true engine of the sector.
Far behind are Imola (3.4% of arrivals and 3.7% of overnight stays) and Castel San Pietro Terme (2% of arrivals). Among the municipalities closest to the city, significant positive changes – albeit on still marginal shares – were recorded in San Lazzaro di Savena, Zola Predosa, Castenaso, Calderara di Reno, Bentivoglio, Castel Maggiore and Casalecchio di Reno. The spa and mountain areas of the Bolognese Apennines are also growing again, although they remain marginal overall. As for the type of accommodation, hotels remain the most popular choice, with 68.8% of arrivals and 57.7% of total overnight stays. But it is the non-hotel segment that is growing fastest, driven in particular by rental accommodation run on a business basis: a category that went from 5,528 properties in 2019 to 11,532 in 2024 and 13,243 in 2025, a trend which, according to the Observatory, is still expanding.

A new balance for regional tourism

Overall, the data from the IRES Emilia-Romagna Observatory paint a picture of a sector in full transformation: having recovered and surpassed pre-pandemic levels, regional tourism now rests on different foundations than in the past, with the cities of art – and Bologna in particular – leading a growth that looks set to consolidate, while seaside and spa tourism are called upon to partly rethink their appeal.