In the Italian charter market, foreign customers account for almost half of all clients, at 45.9 per cent. Leading international demand comes from travellers from Germany, followed by the United States and France. This is the key finding of the first edition of the Rapporto sul Maritime Tourism in Italia, produced by the economic research institute Risposte Turismo and presented at the end of July 2026.
The Italian charter market in figures
For 2025, the report maps approximately 172,000 berths along Italian coastlines, spread across 1,600 active charter licences with an average of 107 berths per licence. For the nautical segment of the survey, Risposte Turismo consulted a sample of 30 charter companies and 43 operational bases, distributed primarily along the Tyrrhenian coast and in Sicily. Domestic demand remains a narrow majority at 54.1 per cent, while the international share stands at 45.9 per cent, with Germany, the United States and France as the leading source markets.
The outlook for 2026 is cautiously optimistic from the operators' perspective. As ANSA summarises from the report, 53.3 per cent of the charter operators surveyed expect growth in clientele compared with 2025, 36.7 per cent expect stability, and 10 per cent anticipate a decline. Expectations regarding revenue are more restrained: 50 per cent of operators anticipate stable turnover, 36.7 per cent expect an increase, while 13.3 per cent foresee a decline.
Where charter offerings are located
The geographical distribution of Italian charter capacity shows a clear concentration along the Tyrrhenian coast and the major islands. According to data from Risposte Turismo, the greatest number of berths is found in Liguria, followed by Tuscany, Sicily and Sardinia. In terms of active charter licences, however, Sicily leads ahead of Tuscany and Campania. The Adriatic coast falls further behind in the capacity statistics.
For those planning a charter holiday, this translates in practice into a choice between very different sailing regions. The Ligurian Riviera suits shorter cruises along the coast between Sanremo, Portofino and La Spezia, while Tuscany is particularly well suited to routes along the Argentario coast and departing from Livorno. Sicily opens up one of Italy's best-known charter areas with the Aeolian Islands, while Sardinia is associated above all with sailing around the Costa Smeralda and the Maddalena archipelago. Campania covers its own charter waters with the Gulf of Naples and the Amalfi Coast . Those who include the Costa degli Dei in Calabria can combine sailing areas from several regions into larger round trips.
Cruises and ferries as the broader context
The charter market is just one segment of Italian maritime tourism, which the study maps as a complete picture for the first time. In total, Italy recorded over 100 million passenger movements at its ports in 2025, spread across 510 municipalities. The cruise segment alone recorded 15 million movements for embarkation, disembarkation and transit, corresponding to around 35 per cent of total Mediterranean traffic. This makes Italy the second-largest cruise destination in the world, behind the United States and ahead of Spain. As Guida Viaggi notes, Italian cruise traffic continues to be heavily concentrated along the Tyrrhenian coast, with Civitavecchia as the leading port of call.
Ferry traffic, which plays a central role for travellers between the mainland and the islands or on services to Sicily and Sardinia, reached 74.3 million passengers in 2025, an increase of 2.1 per cent on the previous year. Of the approximately 60 national ferry ports in total, 35 participated in the first edition of the report, which is why Risposte Turismo classifies its own figure as a lower bound. For travellers arriving in the traditional manner by ferry and car, the Italian ferry port network remains the central infrastructure of Mediterranean holiday travel.
What this means for travellers
For those planning a charter trip along the Italian coastline, early booking is standard practice: the most sought-after itineraries in the peak months of July and August are, as a rule, largely fully booked by spring. Those with flexibility will find lower prices and quieter sailing in the shoulder seasons of June and September, without having to forgo the classic destinations. For a combination of charter and land-based holiday, the coastal towns of the Amalfi Coast, Pozzuoli, and the Adriatic between Ravenna and Venice offer good bases that lend themselves to mooring stopovers and onward travel.
The figures in the Risposte Turismo report thus place Italian maritime tourism within a comprehensive overview for the first time, bringing together the three segments of cruising, ferries and nautical tourism. For the German-speaking travel community , the report underlines Italy's role as one of the most important destinations in the European yacht and boat charter market, with Germany as the leading country of origin in the international charter segment.
