In the age of viral travel trends, our bucket lists are looking more alike than ever – and destinations from Italy to Japan are fighting back.

Many of us have a bucket list – a record of all the places we want to see and the experiences we want to have in our lifetimes. Popularised by the 2007 Rob Reiner film The Bucket List, starring Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman, it's a way of keeping track of our biggest travel dreams. For many, they are just dreams: the time, money and ability to achieve them contingent on a lightning strike of luck happening. For others, it's a case of planning and saving to get to the one place they've always wanted to see.

There's nothing wrong with having one, but increasingly, they're starting to look remarkably similar.

"Social media is the number one source of inspiration for most travellers," says Grace Beard, travel editor at Time Out. "It's overtaken adverts and travel guides – scroll Reels and you'll see the same trends and places all over the place. The same spots are going viral."

This digitisation of travel inspiration has its upsides: we can sit on a sofa anywhere in the world and browse images to stoke our wanderlust. But as algorithms serve us more of what others have already liked, our dreams become homogenised. The result? We all add the same places to our lists – and that's having a negative effect on the travel industry.

"If everyone wants the same viral picture for their Instagram, it leads to a situation where the expectations don't meet reality," says Beard. "Instead of seeing the iconic view, you'll see a queue."

Italian marketing firm Visit Italy is trying to change that. This summer, it launched 99% of Italy, based on data showcasing that 70% of the nation's 70 million annual international visitors head to just 1% of its territory. The campaign calls out the "checklist era" of travel and highlights off-the-beaten track-spots far from the obvious cities and views.

"This kind of concentrated tourism is reshaping cities like Venice, Florence, Rome, Naples and the Cinque Terre into fragile, congested spaces that struggle under the weight of mass tourism" says Dr Ruben Santopietro, the organisation's CEO and founder. "Meanwhile, many authentic territories remain invisible, with no voice and no opportunity. Ninety-nine percent of Italy was created to flip that narrative."

Rather than visiting the country's iconic landmarks and destinations, Santopietro and team want you to discover the hidden Italy, from the 11 ancient villages of........

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