The travel trends that come out at this time of the year make you want to stay at home and take a sabbatical to visit all the metro stations of the nearest large city or all the country’s “X-branded” pubs. Yet most people keep moving in herds.

The World’s Top Trending Destinations for 2018 – Infographic by Airbnb

The top trending places for 2018 include Gangneung, Edmonton, Indianapolis (Airbnb), Agadir, Victoria Falls, Cluj-Napoca (Skyscanner), Cartagena, Ljubljana, Tbilisi (Booking.com). Amazingly enough, one of the most popular experiences on Airbnb is called “Secret Concert in a Treehouse“… let’s not spread the word.

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 – 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.