Incoming: Record Growth and Challenges

2025 data and a clear scenario: those who don’t structure processes and tools today will struggle to grow tomorrow.

And today, getting structured is no longer a choice, but a condition for staying competitive.

The current tourism landscape: inbound travel keeps growing 

Inbound tourism in Italy continues to grow in 2025 as well, consolidating and surpassing pre-pandemic levels.

According to ENIT and Confindustria Alberghi data, in the first months of 2025: 

• Overall tourist stays are increasing compared to 2024 

• Foreign demand is the real engine of growth 

• Spending by international tourists continues to rise, with a direct impact on Italy’s tourism balance
  
  

The main foreign markets – the United Kingdom, Germany, and the United States – are driving this growth, both in arrivals and in economic value generated. Industry forecasts indicate that the flow of international travelers to Italy will continue to grow in the coming years, supported by stable global demand, new routes, and the strong appeal of the Italy product. 

👉 The key takeaway is clear: inbound tourism is no longer a niche, but one of the most solid and dynamic segments of Italian tourism. 

Sources: ENIT, Confindustria Alberghi, Bank of Italy 

The competitive landscape: the market grows, companies grow (and so do the challenges) 

Alongside demand growth, Italy is also seeing a proliferation of small and medium-sized companies focused on inbound tourism: specialist tour operators, DMCs, incoming agencies, and experience operators. 

Many of these businesses were launched or strengthened in the post-Covid period, capturing rapidly expanding demand. However, today they all face the same critical point: 

business growth is no longer sustainable if managed with manual processes. 

As the following increase: 

• Requests

• Suppliers

• Quotes

• Tailor-made variations

• Communication with international clients

“Craft-style” management starts to show structural limits. 

The risk is not only operational, but strategic: the more the market grows, the more competition grows too, and those who can’t get structured lose speed, margins, and control. 

Overcoming internal limits: why “I’ll do it faster manually” slows growth 

Many inbound companies reach a dangerous tipping point: 

• To grow, they would need to hire more people 

• But hiring without structuring processes is not sustainable 

• Know-how remains concentrated in a few key people 

• The business depends on individual experience, not the system 

Phrases like: 

“It’s quicker if I do it manually” 
“To use software I’d have to upload too much data”

are often symptoms of resistance to change, not real efficiency. 

In reality, continuing like this means: 

• Increasing fixed costs 

• Increasing operational risk 

• Making the company fragile in the long run
  
  

A platform like Hubcore.ai turns this paradigm upside down because it enables you to: 

• Centralize the offering (products, suppliers, prices, content) 

• Standardize processes, without losing flexibility 

• Share know-how, avoiding critical dependencies 

• Make the business scalable, without multiplying human resources 

The result is not “less control,” but more control, with less friction.

Business sustainability: growing without increasing complexity 

The real issue today is not just growth, but growing sustainably. 

With a complete platform: 

• Activities are centralized 

• Workflows are clear and repeatable 

• Communication with clients and suppliers is consistent 

• The company works as a system, not as a sum of individuals 

This makes it possible to: 

• Absorb more requests 

• Manage more cases 

• Work across more markets
  
• Without increasing costs and complexity proportionally

Looking ahead: those who get structured today will grow tomorrow 

With this level of inbound tourism growth and increasingly structured competition, the market will undergo a natural selection. 

👉 Only companies that invest today in processes, technology, and organization will remain competitive. 

Those who remain anchored to manual models will: 

• Struggle more to scale 

• Lose efficiency 

• Risk not withstanding the next growth cycles 

Those who get structured today will instead: 

• Be able to grow faster 

• Maintain quality and control 

• Turn complexity into a competitive advantage 

Hubcore.ai

If you operate in inbound tourism and feel that growth is putting pressure on your operations, this is the right time to pause and rethink your model. 

👉 Discover how Hubcore helps tour operators and DMCs structure, centralize, and grow their inbound business sustainably. 

Talk to our team or request a demo.