A new tool that provides useful information for exploring how tourism demand changes over time and monitoring travel trends. Entrepreneurs, travel agencies and institutions will thus be able to observe demand trends in order to make business and marketing decisions based on information and insights that can be consulted in real time. We're talking about Google Destination Insights, BigG's new free tool now available in Italy, which becomes part of the new Travel Insights with Google, a guide that gathers information and tools useful for reaching travelers, available to accommodations, tourism operators and travel agencies. Also part of Travel Insights with Google is Hotel Insights, a platform that offers information and resources designed to help the hotel industry intercept potential tourism demand.
The service was born out of the travel information searches that millions of users make every day on Google to look for travel-related information, which helps connect businesses and customers but at the same time is useful for understanding people's enthusiasm when it comes to their travel and vacation plans.
According to Google searches from January to April 2021, there is growing interest in domestic tourist destinations, rising from a 55 percent share in 2019 to a 79 percent share in 2021. Looking further at interest in local destinations, Google Trends shows that searches for places to visit "near me" in 2021 saw an 8 percent growth globally compared to 2019. Looking at domestic demand, the regions that garner the most interest are Sicily, Emilia-Romagna and Veneto. Veneto also returns among the regions from which most demand comes, preceded by Lombardy and Lazio. The most sought-after destinations, however, remain the big cities, led by Rome, Milan and Naples.
These are just two examples that highlight how by consulting Destination Insights it is possible to observe what the national or international travel demand is, where it comes from, and filter to analyze different insights over a given period of time, considering, for example, Italy as the country of origin or destination. The tool also offers insight into interest coming from abroad to Italian destinations, which in the last thirty days is driven by neighboring European countries, such as Germany and France; among the top 10 countries from which research interest comes are also the United States, while the others are currently European.
In its efforts directed at the world of tourism Google has since last year been working with entrepreneurs, institutions and experts around the world to develop the digital skills needed to meet future challenges. A partnership with the European Tourism Commission to develop the digital skills of European tour operators has been active since May, and more recently a global partgnership with Unwto, the World Tourism Organization, was also announced to support the industry's recovery.
The web giant has also initiated collaborations with cultural and governmental institutions to highlight and stimulate travel to places of cultural interest: In Italy, the Meraviglie d'Italia project, carried out by Google Arts&Culture to inspire and foster interest in Italy and its immense cultural heritage, has been active in this area since last year.
