BTC 2014: all the new features of Italy’s events exhibition. Three cornerstones of this year’s show: repositioning Italy on international markets, promoting the industry in the political arena and the content.The BTC Technical Committee, which has approved the plan, consists of Italy’s national tourism board Enit, the Region of Tuscany, Toscana Promozione, the Florence Municipal Council, the Florence Convention Bureau, Firenze Fiera, Federcongressi&Eventi and Federalberghi Toscana
BTC, Italy’s only events exhibition, due to be held at Florence, on 11-12 November 2014, provides the events, conferences and meetings industry with an opportunity to take stock, reposition itself on international markets and capture new market shares. Furthermore, all the main international destinations and sector players will be present at BTC as exhibitors, in order to meet Italian demand-side operators.
This year, the show will focus on three cornerstones: the commercial positioning of Italy’s offer on international markets; promoting the meetings and events industry in the political arena; and sector trends and professional education.
In the last few days, the BTC Technical Committee, consisting of Italy’s national tourism board Enit, the Region of Tuscany, Toscana Promozione, the Florence Municipal Council, the Florence Convention Bureau, Firenze Fiera, Federcongressi&Eventi and Federalberghi Toscana, has approved the plan for the show and given its strategic and operational support.
As regards the first point, the commercial positioning of Italy’s offer on international markets, BTC will bring to Florence a considerable number of hosted buyers coming not only from Europe, but also from markets further afield that are the top spenders in the events segment, including the United Arab Emirates, Brazil, the US, China and India.
In total, there will be 300 events industry buyers (including 200 foreign buyers) at the show to meet exhibitors in pre-scheduled one-to-one appointments.
With regard to promoting the conference and events industry as a resource for the country’s industry and strategies to develop it, BTC will host the second edition of the Politicians’ Forum. its format is designed to involve national and local politicians (the Minister of Tourism, regional councillors, tourism managers, mayors of towns with a strong conference sector) and prompt reflection on the industry’s value for destinations, beyond the more commonly-known tourism-related benefits, in order that they then support it with appropriate policies.
The Politicians’ Forum is organised by BTC in partnership with Federcongressi&eventi: the objective is to make it a central event for the conference industry and an opportunity for debate, in which future strategies can be outlined through the presentation of best practice in the public and private sectors. The key theme for the 2014 Forum will be that of the national convention bureau, currently being established in the form of a company network.
The third key point of BTC 2014 will relate to its content. Seminars, conventions and panel discussions will again be held, after registering record attendance levels last year. BTC’s education programme, organised in conjunction with industry associations and specialist external partners, will cover a variety of topics, including market trends, macroeconomic data, events, marketing, digital technology, communication, tourism, professional development and reputation.
in 2013, BTC registered an attendance figure of 7,000 over the two days of the show (double the previous year), with 313 exhibiting companies and 300 hosted buyers, for whom were organised five post tours in five different destinations in Tuscany, Umbria and Emilia Romagna.
In Italy, the conferences, conventions and events industry employs 287,741 people, of whom 190,125 are full-time, and 97,616 work on a contract basis. It generated income of EUR 97 million for agricultural companies, EUR 3.65 billion for industrial companies, EUR 6.9 billion for hotels and EUR 4.9 billion for restaurants. GDP generated by the conference industry totals EUR 15,088,000,000. Source: Federcongressi&Eventi, Conference industry financial data, University of Bologna
It makes up 24% of the whole of the tourism business, and globally, it is worth USD 993 billion (2012). It therefore accounts for one quarter of global tourist traffic, although in Italy it “only” accounts for 19.5% (WTTC data, 2013).
Conference tourism is the largest and most organised segment of the tourism industry, and accounts for approximately one third of the entire sector. The segment is difficult to quantify, owing to the different categories it is made up of (business travel, conventions, congresses, corporate events and incentives). A huge number of small events are not picked up by surveys. International statistics are limited to data on large conferences.
Large international events (more than 1,000 people) have registered growth of more than 5% in the last few years.
In 2012, 11,156 large international events were held worldwide (source: ICCA, International Congress & Convention Association).
Forecasts for the 2014-2016 period project further growth (5-5.5% a year), particularly in Europe, with Far East destinations increasingly entering the international market.
The large conferences sector has the biggest economic impact, thanks to longer average stays (3-4 days compared with 2.5 for leisure tourists), significant economies of scale, integration with other segments of the tourism industry, the presence of specialist operators (professional congress organisers and tour operators), and its strong impact on the regional economy.
In the ICCA rankings, Rome is the leading Italian city, in 21st place, hosting 98 international events in 2012. Italy is in seventh place in the country rankins, with 390 events.
*figures presented during the last national convention of Federcongressi&Eventi
