Active travel operator targets Italian interior with running tours

An Australian tour operator has announced plans to launch small-group running tours through regional Italy beginning in 2027, according to Travel Weekly Australia. The venture represents a shift in tourism strategy toward active, experience-based travel in areas beyond Italy's major coastal and urban centres. The operator has built relationships with local race organisers and runners across Italian regions to establish the tours.

The move reflects a broader international trend toward experiential tourism that combines physical activity with cultural immersion. Running tours allow visitors to experience landscapes and communities at a slower, more intimate pace than conventional tourism—a model that has gained traction in Europe as destinations seek to distribute visitor traffic beyond overtaxed cultural centres.

For Sardinia's interior—the Barbagia, Gennargentu and Sarcidano regions—such tours offer potential economic benefit to depopulating communities. The island's dramatic granite uplands, pastoral landscapes and traditional shepherding villages remain largely unknown to international tourism, which concentrates on the Costa Smeralda and beach resorts. Running tours could introduce foreign visitors to the interior's cultural heritage and natural environment while generating revenue for rural towns struggling with outmigration.

Sardinia's interior has long existed in the shadow of the island's coastal tourism economy. Mass tourism has created bottlenecks in beach destinations while the interior has emptied—particularly among younger people seeking work. Active tourism models like running expeditions could help reverse this pattern by creating employment in hospitality, guiding and local services while reducing pressure on fragile coastal ecosystems.

The Australian operator's decision to build relationships with local race organisers and runners suggests a commitment to embedding the tours within existing Sardinian sporting and social networks rather than imposing external tourism infrastructure. This approach aligns with what international travel press has increasingly emphasised: that sustainable tourism requires partnership with local communities rather than extraction of resources.

Whether such tours gain traction will depend on Italy's ability to market its interior regions to foreign active-travel audiences. Sardinia's Ogliastra region, known internationally for its longevity studies and Blue Zone research, already has some name recognition among health-conscious international travellers. Running tours could extend that brand into broader adventure tourism, connecting wellness tourism with the island's landscape and cultural identity.