Tourism

Main article: Tourism in Italy

See also: Tourism in Rome and Tourism in Milan

With 50.7 million tourists a year (2015), Italy is the fifth most visited country in international tourism arrivals and the sixth highest tourism earner in the world.^[135] Tourism is one of Italy's fastest growing and most profitable industrial sectors, with an estimated revenue of €189.1 billion.^[152] People mainly visit Italy for its art, cuisine, history, fashion and culture, its coastline and beaches, its mountains, and ancient monuments. 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 also home to fifty-one UNESCO World Heritage Sites, the most in the world.^[153]
Rome is the third most visited city in Europe and the 14th in the world, with an average of 7–10 million tourists a year;^[154] the Colosseum (one of the world's most popular tourist attractions, with 4 million tourists) is the 39th most visited place in the world.^[155] Milan is the 7th EU's most important tourist destinations, and Italy's second, with 7.7 million arrivals.^[156] Venice has an average of 50,000 tourists a day (2007 estimate)^[157] and in 2006 it was the world's 28th most internationally visited city, with 2.927 million international arrivals that year.^[158]