Italy, despite its ranking in the top industrial countries, the dominant influence of its major historic cities like Rome, Venice, Florence, Naples among others, the terrific figure of 140 M. of travellers during year 2024, and, last but not least, the more than significant 90,4% of all incoming spread on only the 20% of municipalities, offers many other evidences when we try to speak Tourism.
Among the strongest data, 75% of all Tourism lands in just 4% of land.
The marginal municipalities´´, often quoted as those with a number of residents below 30.000, do represent and count 96,1% of all Italian ones. More than half of the Italian population lives there, scattered from the North to the extreme hill of Apulia, from the French to the Slovenian borders, encircled by the Alps and thousand of small and micro communities.
So, one easy question arises. Who is 'marginal'? The 96,1% small ones or the 3,9% metropolitan areas?
Sicily, as the entire region, has lost 280.000 inhabitants in the last 20 years. This trend is considered to be more and more dramatic. A big percentage of its inland surface are considered marginalised. This can be translated as poor services, difficult access to education, health treatments, transports, job opportunities. Elderly population counts daily more and more, out of the entire residents. Skilled and educated youth migrate.
The smallest group of municipalities all around Italy, counting less than 5.000 dwelling each, keep loosing population either. Nothing is inverting this slope, minus 3,5% in the last 5 years of analysis.
On the other hand, all the municipalities below 30.000 residents register 64% of all museums and art galleries, 3/4 of all Michelin stars restaurants and 80% of Italian Unesco Worldwide Heritage Sites.
Too high Touristic flows are altering the Top destinations, too many empty hotels, farm holidays, historic residences and all other registered accommodation sites are waiting to survive.
Tourism is a healing medicine, if and only when we know how to protect the first, to help the others.
If you like it more, try to read in the opposite way round. To help the minors, to protect the Big Ones!
Better Tourism Management benefits more than just the lodging industry. It creates a terrific booster to increase the vitality of marginal economies, to improve these areas, to encourage niche producers to stay alive, and the residents not to relocate, helping cultural roots and traditions to stay alive.
It is a situation when all participants win, and keep winning. And nobody has to pay the entry ticket.
Integrated Relational Tourism is about this and much more.
Let's go back to the values!
( Source: The European House Ambrosetti, Istat )
— Ettore Bellucci