Italy

There were 30,026,400 internet users in Italy (representing 51.7% of the population) in June 2010, according to Internet World Stats. This was up by 127.5% compared to 2000.  (Internet World Stats, June 2010)

There are an estimated 26.4 million internet users in Italy in 2009, according to eMarketer. The country ranks among the top 15 worldwide in number of internet users.

Internet users and penetration in Italy in 2008-2013:
- 2008: 25.3 million (43.5% of the population)
- 2009: 26.4 million (45.4%)
- 2010: 27.5 million (47.3%)
- 2011: 28.5 million (49.1%)
- 2012: 29.5 million (50.9%)
- 2013: 30.3 million (52.3%)
(eMarketer, June 2009)

There were 18,089,093 active internet home users in Italy in June 2009, according to Nielsen Online. This was up by 1.80% compared to the previous month. (ClickZ, August 2009)

Online advertising

Online advertising in Italy is rising steadily, despite the gloomy financial climate. Online ad spending was estimated to reach €730 million ($1.07 billion) in 2009, up 14.9% on its 2008 value of €630 million ($930 million), according to the "This Year, Next Year Worldwide Winter 2008" study by GroupM. But the Internet will still account for just a tiny fraction (7.5%) of total ad spending in Italy, according to GroupM. (eMarketer, June 2009)

Travel Booking

In spite of the current economic crisis, the online travel market is one of the most active segments of the Italian travel industry and will continue to grow in 2010 at a rate of 9%, outperforming the overall market according to PhoCusWright's Italian Online Travel Overview Fifth Edition.

Air traffic and, surprisingly, rail remain the most outstanding sectors for online sales in Italy. On the other hand, tour operators and hotels lag behind. Tour operators were hit hard by the economic crisis and H1N1 in 2009 and are still hesitant to make the move online. The hotel industry which remains highly fragmented, geographically dispersed and largely independently managed, is also reticent to adopt online distribution en masse. Overall, the traditional travel agencies still hold most of the market share, but online travel agencies have started collaborating with them directly.

Italians have been slow to embrace online travel purchases for diverse reasons: broadband penetration is low and still relatively expensive; they are by nature hesitant to release personal information over the internet; traditional offline players have powerful ties and still sell the vast majority of travel related products; tour operators have been cautious about challenging conventional distribution channels; credit card usage is still relatively low and most credit cards have limited spending margins per month and the country's population is aging rapidly, resulting in slower adoption of the Internet than other markets.

Online penetration is expected to reach a full 20% by 2011. Italy will continue to lag behind more mature markets but the figure represents a significant milestone for Italian online travel. Curiously, mobile phone penetration in Italy is the highest in Europe. If the usage of smartphones takes off, online travel penetration could receive an enormous boost. (PhoCusWright FYI, March 2010)

By 2011, Italy is expected to represent 4% of the European market, unchanged compared to 2008 level, according to PhoCusWright's European Online Travel Overview Fifth Edition. (PhoCusWright FYI 09/12/09, December 2009)