In 2016 and 2017 a series of earthquakes hit some territories of Central Italy, causing victims and damages. The news was immediately spread by social media who, along with national Institutes, adopted the broad denomination Centro Italia to identify the affected territory, instead of using more confined and precise toponyms. The purpose of this article is to analyse what repercussions this choice – probably unintentional – had on those territories that form part of Central Italy but were not affected by earthquakes. To do that, an analysis on a decline in tourism is presented, considering it as a fickle business that can quickly oscillate depending on the perception strangers have about a certain territory. A focus is proposed on territories of Abruzzo and Umbria that experienced a fall in presences for being perceived as unsafe.

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