What Is Undertourism and Why It Is the Future of Travel

Undertourism is a simple concept: visiting lesser-known places instead of the most famous ones. It is the opposite of overtourism — the tourist pressure that is slowly suffocating Venice, Barcelona, Dubrovnik and dozens of other popular destinations.

It is not a passing trend. It is a concrete response to a real problem. Overtourism degrades historic centres, raises the cost of living for residents, trivialises local cultures and harms the environment. Undertourism attempts to distribute the benefits of tourism across a wider territory, bringing visitors to places where they are welcome and where their economic contribution genuinely makes a difference.

Italy is the perfect laboratory for undertourism. It has 7,904 municipalities, yet tourism concentrates on about fifty of them. Florence, Rome, Venice, the Amalfi Coast, the Cinque Terre — these are extraordinary places, but they are also places where tourism has exceeded the carrying capacity. Meanwhile, thousands of borghi in the hinterland are depopulating, shops are closing, schools are being merged.

Undertourism does not ask you to give up famous places: it asks you to discover new ones. Instead of Florence, Volterra. Instead of the Amalfi Coast, the Cilento. Instead of the Cinque Terre, the Gulf of Poets. These are destinations just as beautiful, with the difference that your arrival is a positive event for the community, not a burden.

The benefits are mutual. The traveller finds lower prices, more genuine hospitality, more authentic experiences. The local community receives an economic contribution that helps sustain essential services: the bar, the shop, the post office. It is a virtuous circle that works only when there is mutual respect.

Responsible tourism overlaps with undertourism but is not the same thing. You can be a responsible tourist in Venice, and an irresponsible one in an unknown borgo. Undertourism is a choice of destination; responsible tourism is a way of behaving. The ideal is to combine both.

How to practise undertourism? Begin by choosing your destination based on curiosity, not popularity. Look for borghi with fewer than a thousand inhabitants, valleys without ski lifts, coastlines without beach clubs. Travel off-season. Sleep in locally owned accommodation, not chains. Buy in the village shops, not online. Talk to people.

Undertourism does not solve all the problems of global tourism. But it is a step in the right direction — toward a kind of tourism that gives more than it takes, that enriches both traveller and host, and that treats places as living communities rather than stage sets.

You don't need exotic destinations to practise it. Simply look at the map of your own region and find the village whose name you have never heard. Go there, stay for a day or two, and let yourself be surprised. Undertourism begins exactly like that — with one step off the beaten path.