From Amalfi to Soave, the Italian villages driving interest on social media (and growing)

Italian villages, the heart of Italy's cultural and tourist heritage, are the focus of growing interest among social network regulars. This is what emerges from research carried out by SocialData, a company specialising in analysis, forecasts and predictions also through artificial intelligence and machine learning systems, in collaboration with the Associazione Civita, a reality that deals with the enhancement of artistic and cultural heritage with a particular focus on villages.

The research, conducted between 18 July 2023 and 18 July 2024, analysed the mentions, interactions and sentiment related to the topic of Italian villages on social media and other online platforms, including more than 350,000 Facebook communities, more than 151,000 blogs and newspapers, more than 8500 YouTube channels and more than 21,000 Instagram business profiles. The aim is to offer a detailed overview of the trend of mentions and interactions, highlighting the most mentioned villages in the analysed period. Overall, the analysis revealed over 58,700 mentions and a total of 10.3 million interactions, showing a clear and articulated picture of online interest in Italian villages.

As for the most mentioned villages, Amalfi (Campania) leads the ranking with 20,000 mentions and 700K interactions, followed by Positano (Campania) with 18,000 mentions and 650,000 interactions. Peccioli (Tuscany), Bellagio (Lombardy), Tropea (Calabria), Maratea (Basilicata), Ronciglione (Lazio) and Soave (Veneto) complete the list of the most mentioned villages, all with a significant number of mentions and high levels of interaction. The general sentiment detected, both on the generic theme of villages and on individual places, was predominantly positive (72%), with a very limited number of negative perceptions.

This figure indicates high public approval and interest in these places, underlining their crucial role as tourist and cultural destinations. The research also revealed the fundamental role played by social platforms. Instagram, in particular, is confirmed as the main platform for engagement, accounting for a significant percentage of mentions for all the villages analysed. This suggests that images and visual content have a huge impact on public interest. The ability of a village to present itself through attractive photos and high quality visual content seems to be, in fact, a determining factor in generating interactions. This is followed by Facebook and X-Twitter, with a significant presence also on blogs and other sources.

"Ours is a special country rich in history, culture, art and nature. Visitors from all over the world constantly come to visit not only the big cities but also the numerous villages in all Italian regions. The villages represent an asset, an added value for our tourism. This heritage must be protected and, thanks to technology and social networks, we have the opportunity to make these beauties known all over the world. Studies and research such as ours act as a flywheel for the entire tourism sector, one of the main drivers of Italy's economic, social and cultural growth,' explains the secretary general of the Civita Association Simonetta Giordani. According to Gianluca De Marchi, partner at SocialData, "this research shows how discussions on social are transversal. It is not necessarily the case that only frivolous topics are discussed. And in fact art, sustainable tourism and culture manage to capture the attention of users'.