A record increase for TTG Incontri this year

Negotiations end, the game begins. After two and a half days negotiating at TTG Incontri-TTI, the main b2b event in the tourist industry in Italy, which closed last days at Rimini Fiera, the companies of this sector get ready to face the next tourist season with newly-found enthusiasm. Testifying the vitality of a sector that accounts for over 11% of Italy’s GDP, this exhibition, considered an indicator of the sector’s trend, has significantly grown this year: it hit 29,800 visitors, increasing by 4.5% compared to last year’s edition. A constant and meaningful progress that led to a record increase of 50% of all visitors. These data confirm the national leadership of this event among b2b tourist business events. These figures add up to the positive trend recorded last Friday, when the two events opened: over 2300 companies presented their novelties on the market, over a 55,720 sqm gross exhibition ground (the net ground grew by 11.69%). The growth in direct exhibitors was 8% (959, compared to last year’s 888). The growing importance of the event at international level was confirmed by the large number of foreign exhibitors: 52 foreign Tourist Boards, 63 international airlines, 336 companies based abroad, totally representing 99 countries. Among the debuts of this edition, there were those of Bulgaria, Mali, New Caledonia, Croatia, Venezuela and the Principality of Monaco. The TTI workshop for promoting and marketing Italy as a product saw the presence of 510 international buyers (+8.5%) from 50 countries. This figure makes TTI Italy’s largest and most important marketplace for tourism: this year in Rimini, 13.5% of foreign operators came from the USA, 7.6% from Russia and 7.2% from Germany. There was a significant presence of the East, with 7 Chinese and 10 Indian tour operators. TTG Incontri-TTI was opened by the new president of ENIT Umberto Paolucci, who chose this prestigious event for his official debut. It was his first meeting with the sector’s big players, such as the President of Italy’s National Tourist Board, starting a series of articulated and complex confrontations with the Regions as well as the operators, which will hopefully lead, within a few months, to a widely agreed, long-term plan. The renewed enthusiasm fuelling the past few days’ hectic negotiations at TTG Incontri and TTI was supported by the data first disclosed in Rimini by the World Tourism Organization: the world is re-discovering Italy. Luigi Cabrini, Regional Representative for Europe of the WTO, confirmed the return of the Bel Paese at the top of European tourism. Indeed, in 2005 Italy rated third in Mediterranean Europe for international arrivals (36.5 million) and for the deriving turnover ($ 28.5 billion). A leap forward that is expected to increase even more in 2006, as the WTO disclosed that in the first semester of 2006 Italy’s international arrivals grew by 10.3%, while the deriving turnover grew by 9.3%. This positive trend is expected to continue throughout the rest of the year. The programme of the TTG Forum was articulated and successful, focussing on the most interesting topics and scenarios for the tourist sector. The Focus Travel Distribution highlighted the current evolution in the distribution of tourist products. Multi-channel strategies to reach the final user, different technological operative resources and the perspectives of networking for travel agencies were presented and developed here. And the underlying key concept was: the future of Italian travel agencies lies in re-discovering the incoming, because nobody knows and can sell a territory better than a company that operates therein. The Travel Marketing encounters put into contact communication and tourism professionals, to present case histories and to exchange innovative experiences: from the online catalogue, to viral marketing, from transforming the territory from a destination into a system, to crisis communication. Investment@globe preview researched the best financial solutions to allow Italy’s hotel sector to develop and compete on international markets, as well as the potentiality for growth and investment in the golf sector, which has been rapidly developing on all international markets. The appointment with TTG Incontri’s 44th edition and with TTI’s 7th edition is for October 2007, at Rimini Fiera. Theodore Koumelis – Tuesday, October 31, 2006