With

more than 46.1 million tourists a year, Italy is the fifth highest tourist earner, and fifth most visited country in the world, behind France (79.5 million), United States (62.3 million),China (57.6) and Spain (56.7 million).

People mainly come to Italy for its rich art, cuisine,history, fashion and culture, its beautiful coastline and beaches, its mountains, and priceless ancient monuments, especially those from the Greek and Roman civilization.

 Rome

is one of the most visited cities in the world, with an average of 7-10 million tourists a year. The Colosseum (4 million tourists) and the Vatican Museums (4.2 million tourists) are the 39th and 37th (respectively) most visited places in the world, according to a recent study.

In 2005 the city registered 19.5 million of global visitors, up of 22.1% from 2001, and also, in 2006 Rome has been visited by 6.03 million of international tourists, reaching the 8th place in the ranking of the world's 150 most visited cities.

Milan is one of EU's most important tourist destinations, and Italy's second; with 1.902 million arrivals in 2007 and 1.914 million in 2008, it places itself 42nd and 52nd respectively, most visited city in the world. According to a particular source, 56% of international visitors to Milan are from Europe, whilst 44% of the city's tourists are Italian, and 56% are from abroad.

The most important European Union markets are the United Kingdom (16%),Germany (9%) and France (6%).[17] According to the same study, most of the visitors who come from the USA to the city go on business matters, whilst Chinese and Japanese tourists mainly take up the leisure segment.

Italy has some of the world's most ancient tourist resorts, dating back to the time of the Roman Republic, when destinations such as Pompeii, Naples, Ischia, Capri and especially Baiae were popular with the rich of Roman society. Pompeii is currently Italy's third the world's 48th most visited tourist destination, with over 2.5 million tourists a year.

Tourism in Italy - which powers 10% of the economy - showed a decline of 5 to 7% in the summer due to a weak dollar and an economic slowdown.

-- Matteo Marzotto, the new head of tourism board ENIT.

Italy has slipped to 28th place in the World Economic Forum's ranking of competitiveness in tourism. Part of the problem is that small towns and regions competing for tourists often run their own narrow marketing campaigns, leaving Italy without a coherent national campaign to draw tourists.

Italys outstanding government debt amounts to 120% of GDP, making Italy the most indebted of all industrialized countries save Japan or Greece. When it comes to spending money they dont have, it would seem that Italys politicians can compete with the best in the world. And given Italys lackluster growth rates of the past two decades, the countrys ability to pay those debts should be called into question.

The poverty risk in Italy is 27.1%; however, families with children and additional adults experience a higher rate of 32%. In 1993, 959,000 Italian children were classified as poor. The most vulnerable of all children are those residing with single mothers in the southern region, where unemployment is particularly high and the risk of poverty is approximately 64-66%.

A major obstacle in combating child poverty within Italy is its inadequate social welfare system. In 2000, 3.4% of national expenditures were used toward social protection for children and families, which includes funding maternity leave and providing tax allowances for dependent children, while 69.6% of public funds went towards pensions.

The Venice Report, produced by British charity Venice in Peril in 2009, makes the problem clear with some thought-provoking statistics. In 2009 the resident population of Venice numbered just 60,209, a decline of more than 60 percent since 1952. Yet in 2007 the city attracted 16.5 million tourists.

One problem is the fact that many tourists come to Venice on tour buses and spend little or no money on hotels and restaurants. Moreover, tourism adds to the overcrowding and litter. Efforts to control the flow of tourists into the city led to rumors in 1990 that Venice would put quotas on the number of visitors that could enter the city.

Italy has a lower level of infrastructure than other European countries, and this causes serious problems for the competitiveness of its enterprises and the quality of life of its citizens.

The lack of infrastructure is a problem both in industrialized northern Italy, where it hinders further growth, and in the South where it creates an obstacle to industrialization and economic take-off. The delay in the development of an adequate infrastructure has become increasingly problematic in recent years. The causes are many and varied, three main reasons: - lack of planning; - lack of a regulatory framework; - budgetary constraints.

Italy is one of the largest tourist destinations in the world. Every month, thousands of tourists flock to Italy to see the great monuments and experience culture of the Italians. Being such a big travel destination, the tourism industry provides jobs for many Italians as well as provides a large income for Italy.

It would be expected that with the huge returns from the tourism sector that Italy would be able to maintain its monuments and maintain its cultural heritage but sadly this is not the case. Italy has been having economic problems and this seems to be affecting the Italian tourism sector as well. Some of the monuments that tourists travel to see are in ruins and there doesn't seem to be any signs of them being repaired anytime soon.

If the monuments are preserved and the living arts are supported Italy could continue to enjoy the fruits of tourism for a long time to come. however if nothing is done and the monuments are not preserved and taken care of to ensure that they last many more years, then Italy is bound to have some even more tough economic times. Preserving what they have now could be the reason they get out of the bad economic situation that they are in right now.

Italy is not known as being a secured country. There are piles of crimes in Italy. One that is very familiar, is the Genoa incident in 2008 wherein foreign Tourist were victims to civilians who lives Italy. After the incident, there was an obvious meltdown with regards to the Tourism status of Italy.

Tourism was not a country of cleanliness. Many travel bloggers kept on posting about how the environment there was composed of the smell of urine and waste. Also, they dont have proper way of disposing garbage, they are not aware of segregation.