One superyacht in five sailed in Italian waters in 2025, a Deloitte study presented in Genoa has found. Of a world fleet of close to 11,000 superyachts, about 2,200 cruised the Italian coast, and Deloitte puts the average running cost of a superyacht at about 78,000 euros a day, against about 200 euros for a small boat. Then the owners and their guests go ashore, where they spend between 45 and 650 euros per person per day, according to the study, in restaurants, shops, transport and hotels. The study, commissioned by Confindustria Nautica, the Italian marine industry association, is a first edition, and the full report has not been published. But its central finding, presented at the Genoa International Boat Show on Saturday 3 October, is clear: superyachts are about 3 per cent of the active fleet in Italy and generate 42 per cent of the direct impact of nautical tourism, estimated at 5.7 billion euros.
5.7 billion euros, 3 per cent of the fleet
The figures are for 2025. Deloitte splits the 5.7 billion euros of direct impact into 3.6 billion of operating spending, 63 per cent of the total, and 2.1 billion spent ashore, the other 37 per cent. Operating spending means moorings, fuel, maintenance, storage and crew. The fleet in the study counts about 82,000 boats. Seven per cent of them are what Deloitte calls premium yachts, over 18 metres, and together they account for 55 per cent of the direct impact; the superyachts alone, about 3 per cent of the fleet, account for 42. The trend runs the same way. Since 2021, boats under 10 metres have declined by an average of 3.7 per cent a year, yachts of 18 to 24 metres have grown by 0.7 per cent a year and superyachts by 3.3 per cent. Worldwide, the superyacht fleet has grown by an average of 4.1 per cent a year since 2018. In the words of Confindustria Nautica’s English release, “Average daily operating expenditure per vessel ranges from around €200 for small boats to €78,000 for superyachts.”
1,200 seasonal yachts and 960 that stay
The study divides the superyachts into two families. About 1,200 are seasonal. They stay in Italy for an average of 23 days, visit seven places and peak in the summer months. About 960 are resident: they spend an average of 193 days a year in Italian waters, spread over 8.3 months, and most of them measure between 40 and 60 metres. Among the superyachts that visit Italy, 93 per cent fly a foreign flag and 66 per cent are between 30 and 60 metres long. The map is familiar. Seasonal yachts head first for the Costa Smeralda and the Gulf of Olbia, then for Capri, the Gulf of Tigullio, where Portofino lies, and the Amalfi Coast; resident yachts make Liguria their first base by days of presence, with the Riviera dei Fiori, Genoa and the Gulf of La Spezia. The difference in spending is large. According to the release, resident Italian superyachts spend about five times as much a year as seasonal foreign ones. Ernesto Lanzillo of Deloitte drew the lesson in one sentence.
“The competitive challenge is to turn traffic into value, with strategies tailored to each segment and connections with the local area that can capture spending by owners and guests.” Ernesto Lanzillo, Deloitte Private Leader, in Confindustria Nautica’s release of 3 October 2026.
790 ports and 2 per cent of the berths
The study also measures the coast. Italy has 790 port facilities for leisure boating, with about 172,000 berths, and only about 2 per cent of those berths are designed for boats over 24 metres; Liguria and Tuscany hold about half of the capacity for superyachts. Deloitte counts 7.2 marinas and ports for every 100 kilometres of coastline, against 9.7 in France and 7.5 in Spain. The release does not define a superyacht by length, although its berth figures use 24 metres, the threshold Boat International also applies to its Global Order Book. Some things have not been published. There is no figure for indirect impact or jobs, no euro value for the superyachts’ share and no breakdown by port, which is normal for a first edition presented at a show. The release names the room for growth itself: longer stays outside the summer peak, storage, crew welfare and space for refits.
Genoa, and 568 superyachts on order
The study was presented on the third day of the 66th Genoa International Boat Show, which Confindustria Nautica organises and which runs until Tuesday 6 October, with more than 1,000 boats, 215 new models and 45 countries represented. Three days earlier the association had released its own industry figures for 2025. Turnover reached a record 8.72 billion euros, up 1.4 per cent; boatbuilding output was 5.47 billion; exports reached a record 4.4 billion, 90 per cent of production and 21.3 per cent of world exports. On superyachts, Italy leads by a distance. Of the 1,093 yachts over 24 metres on order or in build counted by Boat International’s Global Order Book 2026, 568 are in Italian yards, 52 per cent, a share we looked at in our report on Italy’s superyacht orders. The largest yachts on the quays this year are in our guide to the Genoa premieres. The new study adds the other half of the picture. Italian yards hold more than half of the world’s superyacht orders, and now the industry can put a figure on what the yachts leave behind when they cruise its coast.
Why the money follows the days
Two findings stand out, and both concern time. The first is the length of the stay. A seasonal yacht spends 23 days in Italy and a resident one 193, and the annual difference in spending is about five to one: every extra week means more berth fees, more crew costs, more maintenance and more tables booked in town. The second is the shore. Of the 5.7 billion euros, 2.1 billion are spent on land, between 45 and 650 euros per person per day. For a harbour town, a superyacht at anchor is a guest list. Piero Formenti, president of Confindustria Nautica, framed the whole picture as two goals at once. “Strengthening Italy’s appeal to superyachts and supporting the small and medium-sized boat segments are complementary objectives, not alternatives,” he said in the release. The figures explain why: the superyachts carry the impact, while small boats, in Formenti’s words in the Italian release, are the gateway to boating.
The Luxury.it perspective
The interesting word in the study is not superyacht. It is resident. The image of the yacht that sweeps into Portofino for a weekend and leaves is only half true. About 960 of the superyachts in Italian waters stay for most of the year, Liguria leads them by days of presence, and the resident Italian ones spend about five times as much a year as the seasonal visitors. That changes what a marina is for. It becomes a home port with a season of its own: winter work in the yards, crews to look after, restaurants with regulars. Hotels on the Italian coast know the logic well: the guest who returns every year is worth more than the one who comes once. For anyone planning a charter, the study’s map is useful too. The Costa Smeralda and Capri are the first choices of the seasonal fleet, so book them early, and look at Liguria in spring or autumn, home waters of the yachts that stay.
Related guides
Benetti Clear Waves · Italian superyachts at the Monaco Yacht Show · The Costa Smeralda guide · Yacht charter in Italy
