Is Your Town Nearing Extinction? Try Turning It Into a Resort
Welcome to the world of alberghi diffusi, where tiny villages are going all-in on tourism to save themselves.
Civita di Bagnoregio, in the mountains north of Rome, is home to Corte della Maestà.
Photographer: Andrea Frazzetta/Institute for Bloomberg Businessweek
Roughly 2,500 villages in Italy and almost 3,000 in Spain are at risk of becoming ghost towns. In Japan, 8 million or so buildings sit vacant. As better jobs and modern lifestyles lure young people to cities, what happens to the crumbling hamlets they leave behind?
A few aspiring hoteliers are fighting brain drain and rural flight by turning abandoned buildings in their villages into hospitality hubs. The Italians even have a name for these towns-turned-resorts: alberghi diffusi, or “scattered hotels.”