How we work.

Undertourism is a small editorial operation. The standards below describe how a destination becomes a page, who is allowed to write what, and how we handle paid relationships. Anything we publish should be defensible against everything written here.

Who decides what is covered

A destination is proposed by an editor or a contributor. It must meet at least two of the four criteria in our methodology and have an active local actor we can speak to. Coverage is never sold.

Who writes

Every destination page carries the name of its editor and, where the page has been reviewed, a second name as well. AI-assisted drafting is used routinely; AI never publishes without a human editor having edited, fact-checked, and added the locally specific details that distinguish a real page from a generated one. The Voices block — the named local interview — is always done by a human, with a human, in person or by scheduled video.

Words we don't use

"Hidden gem", "off the beaten path", "authentic", "pristine", "undiscovered". These signal low effort and have been used so often by platforms that mean none of them that they have lost meaning. If a page reads as though we needed any of those words, it has been written too quickly.

Paid relationships

We accept affiliate revenue from a small set of clearly disclosed partners (rail booking, vetted accommodations, tickets). We accept sponsorship of editorial work — destination dossiers, content partnerships with DMOs, EU-funded projects — when the work meets our editorial standards. Every sponsored page carries a visible disclosure line, as required by the EU Digital Services Act. We do not accept inclusion fees for being listed.

Corrections

Every destination page has a "Suggest an edit" link. Corrections from local people, mayors, DMOs and informed travellers are read carefully and, where verified, applied within two weeks. The page's last-reviewed date is updated when this happens. We log significant corrections in our quarterly transparency report.

When we get it wrong

We will. When we do, we correct quickly, name what was wrong, and explain how we are preventing it from happening again. Honesty about being wrong is one of the things we are trying to build the brand on.