Italian tourism focuses on undertourism and the valorization of villages. «Investing in these territories means fighting depopulation and creating new opportunities», declared Giorgia Meloni, relaunching the strategy of deseasonalisation and widespread tourism. Santanchè: «In 2025 the small municipalities grew, compared to 2024, by 6.85% in presences and by 7.86% in arrivals»
Promoting lesser-known Italian places, from villages to smaller islands, is the priority of the Ministry of Tourism. Suffice it to say that 75% of visitors discover only 4% of the Italian territory: that is to say, 96% of our areas remain unknown. The topic of undertourism was addressed by government representatives, mayors, trade associations and sector operators during the first day of the International Tourism Forum. The event, organized by the Ministry of Tourism in collaboration with Enit SpA, took place at the Ice Palace in Milan.
Italy has “overtaken France for the first time in history”
«Italy continues to climb the ranking of the most visited countries in the world and has become the second European nation for tourist presences. We have surpassed France for the first time in history and are approaching Spain’s levels”, announced the Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, in a video message shared during the Forum. This is the result of “a strategic choice” which embraced “two directions: the deseasonalisation and delocalisation of flows”. «Particular attention», continued the prime minister, is directed «to our villages, to small municipalities with a tourist vocation, to internal areas». Also because «investing in these territories» also means «fighting the phenomenon of depopulation, creating opportunities for growth and entrepreneurship for those who remained and bringing home those who were forced to leave».
Tourism in small municipalities is growing
The Minister of Tourism, Daniela Santanchè, took stock of the state of health of Italian tourism. And the balance is more than positive. 2025 was in fact «a year that marked new records, with almost 480 million estimated presences, the European record for average stay of tourists, an impact on the GDP of 237.4 billion euros and tourist spending of 185 billion euros», underlined the minister. And, precisely on the subject of relocation, Santanchè shared the first data: «In 2025 the small municipalities grew, compared to 2024, by 6.85% in presences and by 7.86% in arrivals. It is a sign that our vision, aimed at enhancing and promoting the lesser-known, more hidden and internal territories, is already producing results.”
The ten-year vision
With «the aim of starting to work on the drafting of the next strategic tourism plan», Santanchè shared the main projects for «a ten-year vision». Among the proposals, he announced “a structural reform on the size of companies” given that “fragmentation slows down competitiveness”. And therefore, in this regard, he declared that the Ministry of Tourism is working with the Mef for “a 24-month window that specifically facilitates the aggregation processes of hotel businesses”. The plans also include “an equity pact” aimed at “reducing taxation on tourism businesses by 10%”, greater “administrative efficiency with rigorous KPIs to measure results”, deseasonalisation and also an “alignment of the school calendar” to encourage it. And given that, unlike overtourism, “undertourism is configured as a structural condition that affects most of the territory”, the main challenge “does not lie in the increase in volumes, but in the strategic governance of intensity, times and destinations”.
Milan-Cortina Olympics as an example of delocalization
The Milan-Cortina Olympics themselves accepted the challenge of distributing tourist flows in different cities. In the round table dedicated to the topic, the Minister for Sport, Andrea Abodi, present via video link, pointed out that this is the “first experience of widespread Olympics and Paralympics”. The certainty is that this “model” put to the ground by Italy will be used “by whoever comes after”. The position is also shared by the president of the Milano Cortina 2026 Foundation, Giovanni Malagò: «We have cleared a concept with a master plan. From the first edition of the Olympic Games to 2026, there has always been a city that hosted the Games. But this discussion cannot continue, barring rare exceptions: today the territory where the Olympics are hosted must be expanded.” Among other things, France too, Malagò recalled, has followed the Italian approach for the next Winter Olympic Games, given that they will take place between the Côte d’Azur and the French Alps. This approach has a direct impact on tourism with visitors who will be taken to see more locations in our area. The CEO of Enit SpA, Ivana Jelinic, expressed her opinion on the matter: «Those who arrive in our country for an event can then return to spend their holidays, discovering areas even less known to the international public. We are already seeing how foreign flows for the Olympics period arrive not only from nations geographically close to us, but from different continents, with a strong push from Asia and in particular from China”.
