Rome's off-the-books tourism described as unsustainable.

Rome's short rental sector including Airbnb welcomes more than 13 million 'phantom' tourists whose presence in the capital is off the books and not calculated by official tourism statistics.

This is the 'conservative' estimate by Lazio tourism body Ente bilaterale del turismo del Lazio (EBTL) which described the situation as "unsustainable."

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According to official estimates by the capital's hotel sector, the annual number of tourists staying in Rome is just over 43.5 million.

However Rome's black economy accounts for more than 30 per cent - according to EBTL - bringing the real total number of tourists to over 57 million.

Photo by Keegan Houser on Unsplash