EUROPE - The organiser of BTC, Italy’s events and conference tourism exhibition based in Florence, has announced record figures on all fronts.
The market rewarded the return to Florence and the change of dates with double the numbers in attendance; the total attendance figure came out at 6,724 over the two days of the show, compared with 3,300 last year.
Exhibitor numbers were up 22 per cent, with 313 companies present, while international buyers increased by 40 per cent, with 300 events and conference organisers from 22 countries (mainly from Europe, Russia, Brazil, India, China, Japan, the US) interested in making contact with Italian and international supply-side operators.
The show also saw 7,152 appointments being held between international buyers and sellers, an increase of 32 per cent on the previous show.
BTC 2013 welcomed more than 100 new exhibitors; these included three important international tourism boards, from Israel, Mexico and Poland. Italy presented the conference offer of Tuscany, Puglia, Veneto, Friuli Venezia Giulia, Sicily, Liguria, Emilia Romagna, Basilicata and the City of Turin.
Gian Luigi Piacenti, Chairman of Exmedia, the TTG Italia (Rimini Fiera Group) company that organises BTC, said: “With this edition of BTC, we are convinced that we have fulfilled our remit, offering companies new business opportunities and our country a great deal of food for thought on events’ value for destinations and business as a whole. We hope that the sector and institutions can use this as a launching pad to meet the demand for innovation, development and growth from the whole meetings industry.”
Paolo Audino, CEO of Exmedia, added: “We have often heard that the exhibition model is obsolete, but when we take part in major exhibitions abroad, which have the same model as BTC, we do not feel the need to change the model. We are also xenophiles in this regard. The show is a reflection of the market that it represents, and we still have a long way to go in Italy before we can say that this important sector of our economy is regarded as it should be.”
This year, there were 30 seminars, panel discussions and conventions organised by BTC and its partners (Federcongressi&Eventi, MPI Italia, SITE Italia, Federalberghi Toscana) on the topics of green meetings, crowdsourcing, emerging trends, new technologies and meeting design, social media in boosting hotel revenues, gamification, personal branding, innovation and brand naming.
“For the first year,” said Audino, “we also held a Politicians Forum here in Italy, in order to raise awareness among institutions and politicians of the industry's importance for the Italian economy. This initiative was intended to promote the industry, and we plan to further develop the format with this objective in mind.
“We were only partially satisfied with this first edition, because few politicians attended. This was not something that depended on BTC, but was rather due to the low propensity among our political classes to listen. It was however important to take this first step, and it was a challenge we fully embraced.”
This year’s BTC also saw the launch of activities of the Regions’ and Autonomous Provinces’ Coordination Committee for the development of conference tourism in Italy, comprising associations Enit, Federcongressi&Eventi, Confturismo-Confcommercio, Federturismo-Confindustria and Assoturismo-Confesercenti.
The 30th BTC will be held in Florence on 11 and 12 November 2014.
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