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21.9 million overnight stays in 2025: Sardinia up 16%, Gallura holds 35% of all nights

Sardinia counted 5,170,093 arrivals and 21,922,765 overnight stays in 2025, up 16.4% and 16.0% on 2024, according to the tables published in August by the Regione Sardegna Osservatorio del Turismo (ROSS1000-SIRED data extracted on 18 June 2026, which may differ marginally from ISTAT's certified series because of late corrections). Foreign visitors supplied 12,170,692 nights, 55.5% of the total and up 21.5%, led by Germany (3,262,084), France (1,608,906) and Switzerland (1,042,919); Poland (+36.3%) and the United States (+33.3%) grew fastest among the larger markets. The Province of Gallura Nord-Est Sardegna registered 1,624,729 arrivals and 7,696,261 overnight stays (+15.5% and +11.5%), 35.1% of all nights on the island and more than Cagliari (5,170,269) or Sassari (3,297,115). Olbia logged 362,778 arrivals and 1,161,262 nights (+11.3% and +7.6%), third among Sardinian comuni after Alghero and Arzachena. Golfo Aranci was one of the fastest-growing comuni on the island: 59,380 arrivals and 333,123 nights, up 35.0% and 42.1%, with an average stay of 5.61 nights. Hotels added 8.0% to 11,015,596 nights, while extra-hotel accommodation rose 25.2% to 10,907,169, now 49.8% of the total; non-business private lets alone grew 37.3% to 4,460,195 nights. The season also widened: April was up 39.9% and September (3,485,434 nights) exceeded June. For visitors this means a longer bookable season in Gallura, more demand for apartments and villas, and busier shoulder months.

13 September 2026

Source: Regione Sardegna — Osservatorio del Turismo

21.9 million overnight stays in 2025: Sardinia up 16%, Gallura holds 35% of all nights

The Gallura comuni in detail

Alghero remains the island's most visited comune with 507,650 arrivals and 1,813,687 nights (+14.1%), followed by Arzachena (283,187 arrivals, 1,352,148 nights, +13.8%), Olbia (1,161,262 nights) and Cagliari (442,982 arrivals, 1,123,435 nights, +16.5%). Within Gallura, San Teodoro reached 1,002,013 nights (+12.1%), Budoni 924,377 (+19.0%), Palau 716,259 (+2.3%), Santa Teresa Gallura 579,346 (+39.4%), Golfo Aranci 333,123 (+42.1%) and La Maddalena 325,838 (−4.0%). Olbia's average stay of 3.20 nights is the shortest of the large Gallura destinations, consistent with its role as the airport and ferry gateway; Golfo Aranci (5.61 nights) and Budoni (6.68) are longer-stay resort markets.

Who came

Italians accounted for 2,278,680 arrivals and 9,752,073 nights (+10.2% and +9.7%); Lombardy alone supplied 2,319,790 nights, Sardinian residents 1,621,059 and Lazio 977,161. Among foreign markets, the United Kingdom (834,973 nights, +17.0%), Spain (518,981), the Netherlands (516,797, +23.2%) and Austria (421,262, +25.5%) followed the top three. The United States delivered 122,231 arrivals and 398,607 nights (+30.8% and +33.3%), a rise recorded before the first scheduled New York–Olbia flights began in May 2026.

Month by month

  • April: 769,094 nights (+39.9%)

  • May: 1,557,278 (+9.5%)

  • June: 3,429,104 (+21.8%)

  • July: 4,931,512 (+19.7%)

  • August: 5,456,409 (+16.6%)

  • September: 3,485,434 (+11.7%)

  • October: 1,416,009 (+1.0%)

June to September carried 17.3 million of the 21.9 million nights; the April jump and a September larger than June are the clearest signs of a lengthening season.

Where people stayed

The companion report on accommodation capacity counts 52,147 registered structures and 459,983 beds in Sardinia at the end of 2025: 1,076 hotels with 116,171 beds, 5,047 complementary structures (campsites, holiday villages, agriturismi, residences) and 46,024 private lodgings with 215,625 beds, 46.9% of all beds on the island. Gallura holds 17,906 structures and 176,732 beds, 38% of the Sardinian total, of which 15,926 are private lodgings. Non-business private lets grew from 32,263 registered units in 2024 to 43,952 in 2025 (+36.2%), partly reflecting the national CIN registration obligation that brought previously unregistered homes into the statistics.

A note on the numbers

These are the Region's Osservatorio tables, drawn from the ROSS1000-SIRED reporting system on 18 June 2026; they can differ marginally from the ISTAT-certified series because late corrections keep flowing into the regional archive. Coverage is uneven: 86.5% of hotels reported, but only 43.8% of private lodgings island-wide and 31.8% in Gallura, so nights in private lets, especially around Olbia, are under-recorded and the true extra-hotel share is likely higher than 49.8%.

Sources: Regione Sardegna, Osservatorio del Turismo — Movimento turistico 2025 · Capacità ricettiva 2025 · Osservatorio report index · ANSA, ISTAT certification (23 July 2026) · RENTAL12 Olbia rental statistics (monthly)