Enit goes to the heart of the international market with Ibtm world virtual

Enit will be exhibiting at the IBTM World Virtual, an innovative three-day event, representing 23 participants and "crowds" the international market with "visual winds of Italy". The National Tourism Agency exports the Italian spirit by taking part in the main global event of the MICE industry (Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and Exhibitions) which for over 30 years has inspired the global community, commercial relations and provides updates and comparison on international tourism issues.
 
From 8th to 10th December 2020, Enit organised networking and comparison events to promote Italy and encourage meetings between hundreds of Italian companies, with Spanish and international buyers for a full immersion in the Italian way of life in virtual format with 23 companies together with 7 regions: South Tyrol, Emilia Romagna, Friuli Venezia Giulia, Liguria, Piedmont, Puglia and Veneto.
 
The event has an online agenda for each individual operator present, who can organise up to a maximum of 30 appointments and also aims to facilitate individual tailor-made meetings between suppliers and pre-qualified hosted buyers.
 
An articulated and one-year sponsorship is also planned, up to December 2021 as a headline partner with Reed: joint communication actions across the board and cycles of webinars and a blog dedicated to the enhancement of cities of art, a spotlight involving the capitals in the production of bleisure content, imagining possible future itineraries. These are just some of the innovative Enit communication actions in synergy with the cities of art, an engaging methodology already tested by Enit with the Iltm luxury fair.
 
IBTM World Virtual will still maintain the standards to which the sector has become accustomed to and continues to connect with high-level decision makers from all over the world. The virtual event will take place from 07:00 to 22:00, to allow access to different time zones around the world. The percentage of buyer’s present is distributed as follows: 60% Europe, 17% North Americas, 13% Latin America, 8%, Asia and Pacific, 2% ME.
 
The live conference sessions and forums will address some of the pressing issues of the travel industry such as technology, crisis management, sustainability, future trends and more. In 2019 ICCA (International Congress and Convention Association) had a total of 13,254 international meetings across the world, with an increase of 317 additional meetings compared to the number recorded at the same time in 2018 (+ 2.4%). Italy, with 550 congresses hosted, remains in sixth position (+ 5.4% on 2018). China, Japan, the Netherlands and Portugal follow. In 2019, the average total meeting spend was nearly $ 11 billion, excluding spin-off investments and economic development. The months of September, October and June are still the most popular choices for the associated sector to organise meetings. The congress sector is a rapidly expanding and crucial sector for Italy which, with ENIT, is bringing with it the "vision" linked to sustainability, innovation and seasonal adjustment.
 
In terms of revenue, the overall expenditure of travellers from abroad in Italy for work reasons was 5.8 billion euros in 2019, 13.1% of the total, growing by + 5.0% compared to 2018. In detail, congress travel acquires 874 million euros (+ 7.2% on 2018), 15.1% of the total spent by foreigners for business reasons. Medical science (17%), technology (15%) and science (13%) are the three most popular international meeting themes, and this leads us to focus on the importance of new technologies and the phygital modality, i.e. use of technologies to create a bridge between the physical and virtual worlds.