What undertourism is: travelling against the crowd (and why everyone gains)

Understanding **what undertourism is** becomes easier if you start from its opposite. The term "overtourism" was born in 2016: it was coined by the research firm Skift in an article titled "Exploring the Coming Perils of Overtourism", in the very years when the number of international tourists was passing the one-billion mark. UN Tourism (formerly the UNWTO) defines it as "the impact of tourism on a destination that excessively influences the quality of life of residents and the quality of visitors' experience". Undertourism is the opposite movement: choosing low-density destinations, seasons and rhythms, where the numbers stay below a place's sustainability threshold.

The practical meaning of undertourism is not "going where there's no one", but rebalancing the flows. The problem isn't how much we travel, it's where and when we all pile up together. In 2024 international arrivals worldwide recovered to pre-pandemic levels, around 1.4 billion, and according to UN Tourism's early estimates 2025 came close to 1.52 billion: the growth continues. But this mass concentrates on a very few iconic destinations and in a handful of weeks a year. It's the concentration, not the absolute volume, that generates the queues, the soaring rents and the hollowing-out of historic centres.

The Venice case

Venice is the textbook case, and the numbers are documented. The city has dropped below 50,000 registered residents (48,489 as of 31 December 2024, according to the City Council), while in 2024 it hit an all-time high in tourist presence: over 13 million overnight stays. The most symbolic overtaking is that of beds: for the first time the beds set aside for visitors (almost 50,000) surpassed residential ones. Not even the access fee introduced in 2024 reduced the flows, which grew in every month of the year. When tourism becomes overtourism, say the researchers at Ca' Foscari, the benefits turn into social, environmental and economic costs.

The three levers

Faced with this, undertourism proposes three concrete levers. The first is the **alternative destination**: choosing places that offer the same experience without the pressure. Instead of the saturated alleyways, you can seek out cities and villages on the water, far from the crush; instead of the Sagrada Família and a Barcelona now in revolt against overtourism, there's a less crowded Spain; and for lovers of Roman archaeology, the ancient sites of Rome and Lazio without the queues are worth the trip as much as the Colosseum. The same goes for art: you can see Tuscany far from the Uffizi queues.

The second lever is **time**. Shifting a trip by a few weeks changes everything: lower prices, liveable places, residents restored to centre stage. That's the sense of going in low season, a choice that benefits both you and the places. The Amalfi Coast in September or October is not the same as in August: there are alternatives to Positano that are cheaper and less crowded precisely because spreading the visits across the calendar reduces the pressure on peak months.

The third lever is **geographical distribution**: giving value to lesser-known Italy, to the inland towns that mass tourism skips. Here undertourism intersects with another theme, depopulation. Villages like Craco, perched on the clay badlands of Basilicata, or Gerace, the stone spur dominating the Locride, tell of an Italy that needs visitors, not to be overwhelmed by them. The same goes for the many hidden medieval villages, for an intact walled town like Glorenza in the Val Venosta, or for a masterpiece like Aquileia and its early Christian mosaics, which receives a fraction of Pompeii's visitors despite having the largest mosaic floor in the Western world.

Why everyone gains

Why does everyone gain? The traveller, who spends less and lives a non-standardised experience. The resident, who isn't pushed out of their own neighbourhood. The territory, which taps into an economic flow able to keep shops, schools and trains open. And the overcrowded destination itself, which breathes again when some of the visitors choose something else. Undertourism, in the end, doesn't ask you to give up travelling: it only asks you to do it with more care for where and when. If you want to move from theory to practice, the starting point is seven concrete rules for avoiding overtourism.