The Touring Club of Italy is a private non-profit organization committed to improving the quality tourism, leisure and hospitality as opportunities for personal and collective growth, from a cultural, social and economic perspective. It does this according to the principles of sustainability and collaboration. For more than 120 years, the Touring Club of Italy has spread the knowledge of cultural heritage and protected Italy's wonders. It is the journey of a community of people who see the territory as a valuable asset that needs to be protected and who see tourism an instrument of personal growth. Founded on 8 November 1894 by a group of entrepreneurs in Milan, the Touring Club of Italy immediately provided its members with a network of contacts and services to learn more about Italy and travel around the country. With the advent of the automobile it expanded its reach, opening up to new forms of tourism: it promoted the discovery of lesser-known regions; it committed to enhancement of the environment; it published the first volumes of the Guida d'Italia and opened the Cartography Office. Guides, manuals and papers by the Touring Club spread everywhere. After World War II it participated in the reconstruction of Italy. In the following decades it became a key driver in the development of tourism. Its strengthened its role by training operators, studying and researching, organizing trips and opening holiday villages. In the 90's The Club was the first Italian tourism association to adopt a website.

The strength of the Touring Club is its voluntary structure: members are both operators and users, in a continuous exchange with the territory. With over 3000 volunteers that enhance the territory with more than 500 events to promote Italy’s specificities, from June 2015 it is possible to visit all the rooms of the Palazzo del Quirinale. In addition, to promote the development of a sustainable tourism, the Touring Club selects and rewards with the Bandiera Arancione - or Orange Flag - the small inland towns with less than 15,000 inhabitants With the production of maps, guides, books, web applications and magazines, the Touring Club encourages a responsible and conscious tourism, and has now been contributing for more than a century to the development of the country.