Milan says ‘Yes’ to new convention bureau

The Municipality of Milan, 15 December, launched an official convention bureau for the city – YesMilano – finally filling what local events suppliers and professionals have seen as a longstanding gap for the industry. After reaching a high in 2019 with over eight million bed nights recorded in Milan’s hotel accommodation by international visitors, business tourism is expected to decline by 26% in 2021 and 11% in 2022 (source: Oxford Economics, 2020). The city authorities have acknowledged that the promotion of the territory and coordination of all the city’s MICE players to offer integrated services is now more vital than ever. The new project now provides an opportunity to boost the economy by attracting high spending business visitors to the city. Milano&Partners, the city’s promotional agency is working with organisations such as SEA (Milan Airports Authority) and the Fondazione Fiera Milano to relaunch the metropolitan area of Milan via the YesMilano brand. And Fiera Milano Congressi has now merged its experienced eventing structure with Milano&Partners to meet the demand expressed by associates to further promote the city abroad. Milan is looking forward to hosting some major events that will see the city under the global spotlight in coming years. The Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics being the major one. In July 2021, the city will host the Congress of the European Association of Urology (EAU), and the Congress of the European Society of Medical Oncology (ESM) in 2022. These key events can build on the reputation created by the city’s hosting of Expo 2015, the Champions League Final in 2016 and the Lions Clubs International Convention and the ATP Next Gen tennis tournament in 2019. Medical and scientific congresses held recently in the city include the European Respiratory Society (ERS). The authorities calculate the economic impact of each business visitors on the Milan metropolitan area at €346 per day. By 2023, the city’s stated goal is to bring Milan into the top 10 of the ICCA rankings for best cities for hosting MICE events around the world. Milan has also been laying the foundations to become a European vanguard city for digital innovation, with early investments in the development of 5G and fibre optic networks to cover the whole city.