Airbnb fuels tourism surge in Italy’s small towns
Searches for accommodations on Airbnb in Italian municipalities with fewer than 5,000 residents have exploded, with peaks of +326 % between 2023 and 2025 in places such as Pettorano sul Gizio (Abruzzo) and similar growth in Molise, Piedmont, Aosta Valley, Veneto and Calabria. In more than 680 small communes Airbnb is the only lodging option, and 80 % of Italy’s UNESCO sites are located in these tiny municipalities.
The first “tourism‑diffuse” observatory, produced jointly by Airbnb and TEHA Group, shows that in 2025 the platform generated 836 million euros of total economic impact in small towns, supporting roughly 4 600 full‑time‑equivalent jobs. About 250 000 overnight stays and over 60 000 arrivals (50 000 of them from abroad) were recorded, with direct spending of 346 million euros on food, shopping and transport. Airbnb also pledged a 1.5 million‑euro donation over three years to ANCI to fund local tourism development projects.