Naples – “Despite Italy being in first place in terms of travel intentions, source Google, this then translates, in terms of presence, into concentrations and congestion of tourist flows in the most important cities of art and in a few other popular places.
This means that, on the one hand, 70% of foreign visitors are concentrated in 1% of the territory, but, on the other hand, it also means that there is a 99% of destinations in Italy that have immense margins for development”.
This was, as Ruben Santopietro, CEO and founder of Visit Italy, explains to Dire, the starting point of the convention “The tourism of the future, how to succeed between artificial intelligence, overtourism and global competitiveness”, organized during the second day of BMT, which takes place at the Mostra d'Oltremare in Naples until tomorrow.
“Open Economics – says Santopietro – tells us that if we worked and focused on promoting the rest of Italy, we could increase the Italian GDP by up to 4,5%. There is a business volume of over 85 billion euros of development and it is time to focus on the other 99% of Italy”.
It is therefore necessary to work, says the CEO of Visit Italy, on "effective marketing campaigns, connecting those places on which to focus to the main cities. We work with many small destinations, we follow them in internationalization and positioning paths in various markets.
Of course, tourism alone is not enough, marketing alone is not enough. A whole series of actions are needed, but tourism can become a driving force to prevent the last custodians of those places from abandoning them. There are success stories in Italy and abroad where tourism has transformed those places, just ask Matera how it was before tourism involved it and how it is today.
Tourism can be a positive driving force and Visit Italy's mission is to transform tourism into a positive force not only for travellers but above all for the communities that welcome them".
Article published on March 14, 2025 - 18pm
This article is interesting but I disagree on some points. It is true that there are many destinations, but 70% of foreign visitors who go to only 1% of the territory is a bit exaggerated, maybe they should find other ways to attract tourists.