As Italy Redirects Tourists Away From Overcrowded Cities, One Operator’s 15-Year Bet on Le Marche Pays Off
London, United Kingdom – March 5, 2026 / Italy Charme /
Italy Is Redirecting Tourism.
ASCOLI PICENO, ITALY — Italy welcomed 185 million tourists in 2025, but the country is now actively reshaping where visitors go. As Venice introduces entry fees and Florence tightens tourism regulations, national tourism strategy is shifting towards lesser-known regions. For Moreno Moretti, founder of boutique travel company Italy Charme, this transition reflects a model he has quietly built for more than fifteen years. Moretti describes his approach as creating “unGoogleable experiences”, access built through long-standing relationships rather than searchable bookings.
Venice introduced an entry fee for day-trippers and lost 30% of its visitors. Florence banned short-term rental lockboxes in its historic center. The Dolomites installed pay gates on popular hiking trails. Rome’s Jubilee year stretched infrastructure past its limits. Italy’s most visited destinations decided that too many visitors had become the problem.
The Italian National Tourism Board (ENIT) responded in late 2025 with “Luminous Destinations 2026” — a national campaign designed to spotlight regions including Puglia, Basilicata, Le Marche, Abruzzo, and Sardinia. The stated goal: attract travelers to the 99% of Italy that remains undiscovered. This shift toward lesser known destinations mirrors an approach already established on the ground.
For Moreno Moretti, a native of Ascoli Piceno in Le Marche and founder of boutique DMC Italy Charme, that campaign describes a business he has been running since 2011. Over fifteen years, Moretti has built what he describes as “unGoogleable experiences”, access to artisans, producers, and cultural spaces unavailable through traditional travel platforms.
The Operator Who Got There First
Moretti spent fifteen years building something that no search engine can replicate: a personal network of artisans, chefs, winemakers, and cultural custodians across Italy who operate entirely through relationships, not platforms.
The result is what he calls “unGoogleable” experiences — a term Forbes adopted in a 2021 feature on Le Marche, describing Moretti as an operator who “prides himself on getting guests off the beaten path and into less-visited parts of his country, doing so in high luxury and style.”
The concept is not marketing language. It describes access that literally does not exist online.
Sibillana is a women-led wool cooperative in the Sibillini Mountains. No website. No TripAdvisor listing. Travelers participate in traditional wool processing techniques passed through generations — but only through Moretti’s direct relationship with the group. In Venice, Italy Charme arranges behind-the-scenes visits to historic gondola workshops where artisans demonstrate centuries-old construction methods. In Le Marche, guests stay at Castello di Luco, a restored medieval castle in Acquasanta Terme overlooking the Sibillini National Park — a property Moretti brought into his network directly. In Rome, private visits to active art conservation studios where restorers work on centuries-old pieces, arranged through connections built over a decade.
“I started talking about Le Marche when nobody outside Italy had heard the name,” Moretti says. “I spent years walking the Sibillini Mountains, eating with food artisans, sharing what I found with international TV crews. People told me I was crazy to bet on a region nobody knew. Then Forbes came. Then ENIT built a national campaign around the same idea.”
A Media Record Built Before the Business
The network that powers Italy Charme was not assembled as a business strategy. It grew out of Moretti’s decade-long work in food and cultural media.
In 2012, London production company Optomen brought him on as local expert and co-presenter for Channel 4’s Feast with Heston Blumenthal, filmed across Le Marche. That same year, Jamie Magazine commissioned him to design a food tour of artisan producers around Ascoli Piceno. He served as recipe consultant and filming location scout for Maria Liberati’s PBS television program. Swedish TV chef Maud Onnermark collaborated with him on wine and food tours in Pesaro.
Each collaboration strengthened relationships that now form the foundation of Italy Charme’s access across Italy.
“Every chef, every artisan, every winemaker I worked with during those years is still part of what we offer clients today,” Moretti says. “You cannot build these relationships in a year. You cannot buy them. That is the point — that is what makes them unGoogleable.”
The Market Is Moving in His Direction
Industry data confirms the shift. The global luxury travel market reached $1.59 trillion in 2025, projected to hit $3.04 trillion by 2033, according to Grand View Research. North America accounts for 32% of that spending. The luxury experiential travel segment alone is valued between $1.1 and $1.3 trillion by Statista.
Within this market, the shift toward authenticity is measurable. The 2025 Hilton Travel Trends Report found that 73% of travelers now seek authentic, local experiences over conventional sightseeing. American Express Travel data shows the same percentage of global travelers consider supporting local small businesses a priority. Affluent U.S. travelers — just 22% of all American tourists — generate 46% of total experience spending, with 58% booking private tours, according to Arival Research.
Italy’s numbers confirm the redistribution trend. Foreign tourists spent €3.2 billion in Italy in March 2025, up 7% year over year. Virtuoso named Italy the top luxury destination in the world for 2025. But while Rome’s Jubilee drew record pilgrim numbers, secondary regions captured the real growth: Puglia alone welcomed 6.7 million visitors, with international arrivals up 25% according to PugliaPromozione.
Le Marche, Moretti’s home region, sits at the center of ENIT’s diversification push. The region delivers landscapes comparable to Tuscany, Adriatic coastline, and medieval hill towns at a fraction of the cost and none of the overcrowding.
As Italy prepares for another record travel season, operators capable of directing visitors beyond overcrowded destinations are becoming increasingly relevant to both travellers and tourism strategy.
Formalizing the Mission
In 2025, Moretti joined The Conscious Travel Foundation as a Founding Member — a non-profit organization that has directed £96,000 to community-led projects worldwide and won the PURE “Change Makers” Award in 2024.
Under the Foundation’s model, 50% of Italy Charme’s membership fees are donated to a community-led project selected by Moretti, directing funds back to the artisan communities across Italy that form the backbone of his business.
“The wool makers, the gondola builders, the old perfumers in Venice — they are the guardians,” Moretti says. “If we lose them, Italy loses something that no restoration project can bring back. The Foundation gives us a structure to put money where the mission is.”
About Italy Charme
Italy Charme is a boutique destination management company headquartered in Ascoli Piceno, Italy. Founded by Moreno Moretti, the company designs bespoke private travel experiences across all Italian regions, with deep expertise in Le Marche, Tuscany, Puglia, and the Amalfi Coast. Services include private guided tours, luxury villa stays, exclusive cultural experiences, and curated culinary journeys. Italy Charme is a Founding Member of The Conscious Travel Foundation and a member of Ensemble Travel Group, Connections Luxury, and the Transformational Travel Council, where Moretti serves as Ally Director.
Featured in: Forbes, ITALIA! Magazine, Channel 4 (UK), PBS (US), Jamie Magazine, Fox 40 News, Yahoo News
About The Conscious Travel Foundation
The Conscious Travel Foundation is a non-profit membership organization of 110 businesses across 29 countries that collaborates, educates, and advocates for sustainable tourism. Founded in 2020, it has raised over £193,500 for grassroots causes worldwide. Fifty percent of membership fees fund community-led projects. Winner of the PURE “Change Makers” Award 2024.
MEDIA CONTACT
Moreno Moretti – Founder & CEO, Italy Charme
Email: info@italycharme.com
Phone: US 1-800-413-964 | UK +44 207 193 7488
Web: www.italycharme.com
Contact Information:
Italy Charme
85 Great Portland Steet
London, England W1W 7LT
United Kingdom
Moreno Moretti
USA +1 (209) 813 2532
https://www.italycharme.com
