MICE market "incredibly important" to Italy's tourism recovery, with a focus on innovation for 2021, says Italian Tourist Board, Enit. (Pictured: IBTM World 2019) Photo Credit: IBTM Events
The Italian Tourist Board, Enit, has inked an exclusive year-long
partnership with IBTM Events, which includes four global events: IBTM
World Virtual 2020; IBTM Asia Pacific 2021; IBTM Americas 2021, and IBTM
World 2021.
The partnership kicks off this week at IBTM World Virtual (8-10
December). During the event, attendees — from from Europe (60%), North
Americas (17%), Latin America (13%), Asia and Pacific (8%) and ME (2%) —
have been able to schedule up to 30 appointments with 23 Italian
suppliers from seven regions: South Tyrol, Emilia Romagna, Friuli
Venezia Giulia, Liguria, Piedmont, Puglia and Veneto.
Apart from a significant boost in presence at IBTM's slew of events,
the partnership will also include a series of webinars and a themed blog
with curated itineraries dedicated to Italy’s cities of art, offering
business travellers ideas for post-meeting activities.
This move demonstrates how "incredibly important" the MICE market is
to the recovery of Italy's tourism sector, said Maria Elena Rossi,
director of marketing for Enit.
In 2019, overall expenditure of international business travellers in
Italy was valued at 5.8 billion euros (US$7.02 billion), up 5% from
2018. The top three international meeting themes are medical science
(17%), technology (15%) and science (13%) — which has led Enit to focus
on innovation for the MICE sector in 2021.
"We work closely with ENIT across our portfolio and are looking
forward to working with them to deliver some engaging added-value
content to help event organisers plan meetings and events in this
beautiful part of the world again, when it is safe to do so," said
Michael Jones, event manager, IBTM Asia Pacific and IBTM Connect.