The Ministry of Tourism is preparing a review of the rules on advance sales of amusement park tickets, a request that operators have been pursuing for years. This was announced by Minister Gianmarco Mazzi during the recent annual meeting of AssoParchi: "Our legislative office is working on important regulatory simplifications, starting with the revision of the restrictions on ticket advance sales, which today penalize operators".
The sector has over 400 facilities including theme, water, wildlife and adventure parks. According to data from the Italian Society of Authors and Publishers (Siae), in 2025 it recorded around 20.6 million admissions and 306 million euros in public spending on tickets. The prospects for 2026 instead come from the AssoParchi national observatory, created with Grs Research & Strategy, which indicates a season in line with the previous year and a new phase of investments.
The limit of 10 tickets
The contested constraints are those set by the Revenue Agency in 2019 to implement the rules against secondary ticketing. The term refers to the bulk purchase of tickets to resell them at higher prices, a phenomenon that arose around concerts and live events. However, the rules apply to all online sales of shows and entertainment, including parks. Anyone who buys must register and identify themselves, and each user cannot purchase more than 10 tickets for the same event. A September 2025 update simplified identification, but the limit remained unchanged.
According to AssoParchi, this mechanism effectively prevents Italian parks from selling through tour operators and large international e-commerce platforms, which buy tickets in quantities to resell them to their customers. The association estimates that access to these channels would lead to sales growth of between 3% and 5%, with a greater effect for parks that have many foreign visitors.
The case also reached Brussels. Already in 2023, a question to the European Commission highlighted the disadvantage of Italian parks compared to their European competitors. In June four MEPs presented another, asking to verify whether Italian legislation is compatible with the rules of the digital single market.
The minister also indicated a second front, promotion abroad: "A further area of collaboration concerns the involvement of the parks in institutional communication activities aimed at tourists, including international ones, enhancing their ability to reach millions of visitors".
2026 in line with 2025
We will have to wait for a definitive assessment of the year. According to Luciano Pareschi, president of AssoParchi, "many parks are still open with Christmas theming and it is still early to draw conclusions on the performance of the year: we can however estimate a closure in line with 2025".
However, the trend in 2026 was uneven. The particularly hot summer increased attendance at water parks and "penalized other types of parks" while autumn is bringing positive results to theme parks. “The autumn season started very well, with the great Halloween exploit confirming itself as a growth driver for theme parks,” says Pareschi. “The prospects for Christmas are also positive, thanks to the increasingly sophisticated themes that have allowed us to create an unmissable event for many families”.
Themed openings contribute to deseasonalization, distributing attendance and revenues over several months and reducing dependence on summer. The weight of these periods had already emerged in the 2025 Siae data: compared to the previous year, spending on tickets had grown by 28.5% in October and 31.1% in December.
Where investments go
According to the first phase of AssoParchi's 2026 census, 90% of companies plan new investments. 85% will allocate them to new attractions, 64% to infrastructure and 56% to digitalisation, while 79% want to expand spaces and offers to reach new segments of the public.
The sector has already launched a three-year investment plan for the period 2025-2027. “To keep the public's interest alive and continue to surprise guests year after year, the sector will continue to invest, as part of a three-year plan worth 500 million euros,” assures Pareschi.
The public at the parks
Among those who have already visited a park, the opinions are high. On the almost 4 thousand questionnaires collected by the Observatory during the opening days, the average satisfaction was 4.57 out of 5 and the propensity to return was 4.40. The Net Promoter Score, the index that measures how many visitors would recommend the experience to friends and colleagues, is at +69 on a scale from -100 to +100.
A second GRS survey, the In Person Impact Index Italy, instead looks at the general population. Out of a sample of 705 people, 69% say they want to have more experiences in person. The data concerns live activities in general, but the sector considers it a potential demand for parks as well. Above all, the lack of time (48%), costs (42%) and logistical difficulties (34%) are holding it back. Spending on tickets represents only a part of the economic activity of the parks, to which must be added catering, merchandising and ancillary services.
The numbers of the sector
The 306 million certified by Siae only measure the ticket office and leave out catering, merchandising and ancillary services, which form the rest of the parks' turnover. According to AssoParchi estimates, the sector's related activities reach 8 billion euros, including hospitality, catering, trade, transport and services. The parks employ 25 thousand people including permanent and seasonal employees, which according to the association becomes at least 60 thousand if you count related activities.
On the programming, Mazzi indicated a date: "In the update of the Strategic Plan, which we will present on 22 and 23 March at the International Forum of Italian Tourism, we want to reserve significant space for park development programmes". However, the path of the regulatory review on pre-sales remains to be defined, from which operators expect new distribution opportunities, especially on international markets.
