ENIT announces global partnership with IBTM Events

The Italian Tourist Board, ENIT and IBTM Events have agreed a year-long partnership which will include ENIT participation at the Reed shows IBTM World Virtual 2020, IBTM Asia Pacific 2021, IBTM Americas 2021, and IBTM World 2021. The partnership kicks off at IBTM World Virtual, 8-10 December 2020, with ENIT bringing its strong spirit of Italy to meet with event buyers in the shape of 23 Italian companies from seven regions, including South Tyrol, Emilia Romagna, Friuli Venezia Giulia, Liguria, Piedmont, Puglia and Veneto. Under the partnership, ENIT will deliver a series of webinars and a themed blog dedicated to Italy’s Cities of Art and designed to inspire business travellers to make the most of their time in Italy and enjoy the benefits of mixing business with leisure. ENIT will also showcase some new itineraries to match specific interests. Maria Elena Rossi (pictured), director of marketing for ENIT, commented: “We are delighted to announce this strategic partnership between Italy and IBTM Events. The MICE market is incredibly important to the recovery of tourism in Italy which has been severely impacted by Covid-19. We look forward to a productive event this month and an ongoing partnership into 2021. “In terms of revenue, the overall expenditure of travellers from abroad in Italy for work reasons was €5.8bn in 2019, a growth of 5% compared to 2018.  Medical science (17%), technology (15%) and science (13%) are the three most popular international meeting themes leading us to focus on innovation in the MICE sector for 2021.” Michael Jones, event manager, IBTM Asia Pacific and IBTM Connect, commented: “The partnership with the Italian Tourist Board, ENIT, for the entire annual IBTM portfolio events cycle cements what is an excellent working relationship between the two organisations. We 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.” This year, the live conference sessions and forums at IBTM World Virtual will address some of the pressing issues of the travel industry such as: recovery from the global pandemic; technology; crisis management; sustainability and future trends. The virtual event will have extended hours to allow access to different time zones around the world. Organisers report the percentage of buyers is: 60% Europe, 17% North Americas, 13% Latin America, 8%, Asia and Pacific, 2% ME.