Filed Under Italy

Italian Villages: In Between Sustainability and Cultural Heritage

If 2017 was the Year of Sustainable Tourism, 2018, at least in Europe, will be that of Cultural Heritage. Well, the tourism project that probably best represents this transition bears the signature of home rental giant Airbnb, in collaboration with the Italian Ministry of Culture and the National Association of Municipalities.

Italian Villages Project: Sharing Rural Italy
Italian Villages Project: Sharing Rural Italy – Illustration by Airbnb

Italian Villages, this is the name of the interesting joint project, supports and promotes internationally twenty small rural communities, from north to south of the country. We like it for at least three good reasons:

  • Offers an alternative to the usual tourist routes;
  • Can guarantee the survival of villages otherwise destined to disappear;
  • In the country with the largest number of World Heritage sites (53), it shows that there can be life beyond World Heritage sites.

The “Italian Villages” project is part of a wider national initiative, which involves 1,000 towns throughout Italy, and provides a rich and varied calendar of events.

Digital Travelers: Just Who Are They Anyway?

If you are a data junky like us, you will certainly appreciate the fresh Global Digital Traveler Research 2017 by Travelport, based on interviews with 11,000 travelers from 19 countries worldwide. Here’s a snapshot of the key findings.

Travelport's Global Digital Traveler Research
Key Findings of the Global Digital Traveler Research – Infographic by Travelport

Taking a closer look, we were particularly impressed with the following results:

– 60% said they would be lost without their smartphone, but 43% would switch off all devices (so, at least 3% is already lost and where are the moderates here?)
– 68% of Indonesian travelers book their trip on a mobile device (jeez, really?)
– 63% of senior travelers (those over 55) “know exactly what they want” when researching a trip (the wisdom of age… yeah sure, but how sad is that?)

Anyway, the report also includes a list of the most digitally-dependent countries and the top ten are not exactly the ones you would expect. In fact, the ranking looks like this: 1) India, 2) China, 3) Indonesia, 4) Brazil, 5) Saudi Arabia, 6) Mexico, 7) South Africa, 8) United Arab Emirates, 9) Colombia, 10) Italy.

To find out more, download Travelport’s Global Digital Traveler Research.