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Il Garda.live
Tourism Observatory
25,6M
Visitors 2023
Historical record
5,73%
of Italian hotel
tourism
55,5%
Foreign tourists
+5.5pp since 2018
8.699
accommodation facilities
3 provinces

Garda Score — today's map

Estimated crowding of the 26 towns, from 0 to 100. Tap a dot for details: the bigger and warmer the dot, the higher the score.

Quiet Moderate Lively Very busy Overcrowded

Index estimated from public data · OpenStreetMap · Open-Meteo · TomTom · Full ranking of all 26 →

Accommodation supply structure

Distribution of hotel establishments by category and province. Source: Provincial ISTAT / Confindustria Brescia (November 2024).

Province 5 stars 4 stars 3 stars Hotels % of total lake
Brescia 13 94 195 423 36,8%
Verona 3 104 249 541 47,0%
Trento 2 35 78 170 14,8%
Lake Garda Total 18 234 530 1.150 100%

Evolution of visitors

Hotel visitors on Lake Garda 2019–2023. Source: Provincial ISTAT / OTG Unicattolica Brescia.

2019
23,8M
Pre-pandemic — baseline year
2020
8,2M
COVID year — lockdowns and closed borders
2021
20,6M
First recovery — mainly domestic tourism
2022
23,9M
Return to pre-pandemic levels
2023 — Record
25,6M
Historical high. +7.6% over 2019.
Position in Italy
7th
Ahead of Campania, Puglia and Sicily

Municipalities with the highest tourism pressure

Tourism rate per coastal municipality — visitors / residents ratio. OpenStreetMap + OTG data.

Concentration of hotel supply (hotels per municipality)

Interest by source market

Google search interest index for "Lake Garda" in key source markets. Updated weekly via Google Trends.

Confirmed insight — Google Trends
The German market searches in February–March and arrives in June: confirmed lead time of 9 weeks. Sirmione 5-star hotels sell out 6 weeks before the July peak.
DE
Germany
Main market for foreign visitors. Search peak in February–March, arrivals peak in June–July. Average lead time: 9 weeks.
Monitored
GB
United Kingdom
Second market for search interest. High sensitivity to flight prices. Extended season: May–September.
Monitored
IT
Italy
Dominant domestic market. Prefers weekends and low season. Responds quickly to weather and local events.
Monitored
PL
Poland
Growing market. Seasonality similar to Germany. Preference for 3–4 star facilities and active itineraries.
Monitored
US
United States
Limited presence but high value per overnight stay. Interest focused on Sirmione and historic villas.
Monitored
+ altri
Other markets
Austria, Switzerland, Netherlands, Czech Republic. Being integrated into the model.
Coming soon

Google Trends — last 52 weeks

Data collected automatically every Monday. Run the script to update.

Coming soon
New studies and in-depth analyses on source markets, seasonality and tourism trends on Lake Garda coming soon.

Comparison with competing lakes

Comparative search interest: Garda vs Como vs Maggiore. Index 0–100, 5-year average.

Average annual index (Google Trends — 5 years)

Our analysis

Original takes by gardalytics — market intelligence and data on Garda tourism. Read the manifesto →

2026
The 25 million that mislead: the real size of Lake Garda's digital market
Mr. Oliveira, J. P. Leonardogardalytics · By Mr. Oliveira, J. P. Leonardo
Crossing official tourism statistics with real search demand: a market smaller, more concentrated and more seasonal than the narrative suggests. The German audience accounts for 43%; seasonality of 5.5×.
gardalytics analysis
›
All analysis →

Research & Publications

Academic studies, institutional reports and official datasets on Lake Garda tourism — ordered by publication year.

Osservatorio del Turismo del Garda · Università Cattolica Brescia

2025
Turismo globale e contesti locali: il ruolo dei Comuni nello sviluppo turistico del lago di Garda
Prof. Valerio Corradi et al. · OTG / Università Cattolica Brescia
Survey of 33 out of 40 lakeside municipalities: analyses the role of local governments in tourism governance, planning and visitor-flow management policies. Presented in Salò, January 2025.
Institutional research
›
2023
Tendenze della domanda turistica sul lago di Garda — Il turista del Garda: qualità e temi dello sviluppo sostenibile
OTG / Università Cattolica Brescia
Survey of ~400 tourists in summer 2023. Analyses profiles, motivations, satisfaction and attitudes towards sustainable development during the post-pandemic recovery period.
Institutional research
›

Market Studies & Economic Impact

2024
La "Regione del Garda": un'ipotesi di lavoro
Davide Fedreghini · Centro Studi Confindustria Brescia / OTG
Economic analysis treating Lake Garda as a single unified region, aggregating 10 years of ISTAT data across the three shores. Quantifies 26.1 million overnight stays in 2023, equal to 5% of all tourists choosing Italy.
Market analysis
›
2024
Il Garda Trentino e l'impatto economico del turismo: risultati e prospettive
Garda Dolomiti – Azienda per il Turismo S.p.A.
Economic impact study: visitor spending in Garda Trentino reached €543.4 million in 2023, generating €673 million in total output (direct + indirect + induced). Presented at Garda Tourism Factory 2024.
Market analysis
›
2022
Rapporto sul Turismo Italiano — XXV Edizione 2020–2022
CNR-IRISS · Ed. Marasco, Maggiore, Morvillo, Becheri
The benchmark report on Italian tourism (25th edition). Confirms Lake Garda as Italy's leading lake destination, with 11 Garda municipalities in the national Top 30 by overnight stays.
National report
›

Official Statistics

2024
Movimento dei clienti negli esercizi ricettivi — Anno 2023 (dati comunali)
ISTAT
Municipal-level dataset with arrivals and overnight stays for all Italian municipalities in 2023. Primary data source for Gardalytics: ~26.1 million total overnight stays on Lake Garda, seasonal peak of over 52,000 overnight stays/day on the Brescia shore.
ISTAT dataset
›
2025
I flussi turistici — Anno 2024
ISTAT
139.6 million arrivals and 466.2 million overnight stays in Italy in 2024. Italy is confirmed as the 2nd largest EU country by tourist overnight stays. Includes breakdown by region and accommodation type.
ISTAT dataset
›
2024
Indagine sul turismo internazionale — Anno 2023
Banca d'Italia
Historical series from 1996 on foreign tourist spending in Italy: trip profile, duration, accommodation type and regional distribution. Northern Italy (Garda's main source markets: DE, AT, NL, GB) is analysed in detail.
Banca d'Italia
›
2024
Tourism statistics at regional level — Dataset tour_occ_nin2
Eurostat / Commissione Europea
NUTS-2 dataset of overnight stays in accommodation establishments: Lombardy (ITC4), Veneto (ITH3), Trentino (ITH2). Source for Gardalytics European benchmarks. Annual update.
Eurostat NUTS-2
›

Peer-reviewed Academic Studies

2023
From the Exclusive to the Excessive: Lake Garda's Long History of Tourism and Overtourism
Maria Paola Pasini · Athens Journal of Tourism, Vol. 10, No. 3 · DOI: 10.30958/ajt.10-3-4
Historical and contemporary analysis of overtourism at Lake Garda. Traces the evolution from elite tourism to mass saturation and local management strategies. Records over 27 million overnight stays in 2022.
Peer-reviewed
›
2021
Is Preservation the Key to Quality and Tourists' Satisfaction? Evidence from Lake Garda
Goffi, Osti, Nava, Maurer, Pencarelli · Tourism Recreation Research, Vol. 46, No. 3
Quantitative study with structural equation modelling applied to Lake Garda visitors. Demonstrates that the protection of local natural and cultural resources is positively correlated with perceived quality and tourist satisfaction.
Peer-reviewed
›

Environment & Water Quality

2024
Stato delle acque superficiali del Veneto — Corsi d'acqua e laghi, Anno 2023
ARPAV (Agenzia Regionale Prevenzione e Protezione Ambientale del Veneto)
Certified monitoring of 17 Veneto lakes including Lake Garda (stations: Malcesine, Brenzone, Torri del Benaco, Bardolino, Lazise) and 65 bathing water control points. Includes ecological classification, PFAS and heavy metals.
Report ARPAV
›
2018
Lo stato del lago di Garda: i dati delle agenzie ambientali
ARPA Lombardia · ARPA Veneto · APPA Trento (pubblicazione congiunta SNPA)
First tri-regional report on the ecological status of Lake Garda under the Water Framework Directive (D.Lgs. 152/2006). South-east basin: "good" status; western basin: "sufficient" status due to excess phosphorus. Unified monitoring since 2014.
Report SNPA
›
Methodological note
Gardalytics uses as primary sources the ISTAT datasets (Movimento dei clienti, CC-BY 4.0) and Eurostat (tour_occ_nim). Spending and rental pressure data are sourced from Banca d'Italia and Eurostat NUTS-2 and are illustrative at municipal level. Monthly historical series for the Brescia shore come from Open Data Regione Lombardia (CC0, 2019–2024).