Conference tourism: a major resource for Italian economy - By: Michele De Capitani

In Italy, a country in which tourism is very important, due to a cultural and artistic heritage which is unique in the world, to wonderful landscapes and to famous fine food and wine, the watchword now is “deseasonalizing”, i.e. attracting tourists and visitors throughout the year. Fighting the crisis means re-launch those sectors, like tourism, which are a strength for Italy, but which have gone through a bad period in 2008 and 2009, and we can do that through projects which are meant to widen the offer and attract different categories of tourists.

One of the sectors that Italy is now investing in is conference tourism, to attract visitors who are very appreciated by hoteliers and tourism operators. This category of tourists, indeed, is mostly composed of professionals who can spend money, thus making all those who work in that area happy. Moreover, conference tourism is a very useful means to deaseasonalize tourism in Italy, and to promote those areas that in some periods of the year would not be very busy. An example is given by Romagna Riviera, full of tourists in summer, not so much in the other seasons: the Rimini fairground, young but already competitive, attracts in that area another type of tourism, which is not less important than beach tourism. Furthermore many hotels of the Riviera cities, like Riccione, work throughout the year hosting conferences, conventions and corporate meetings. Many hotels in this and other tourist cities are equipped with meeting rooms and provide all those services (hostesses, translators and interpreters) and tools (microphone, overhead projectors…) which are necessary to host an event. Promoting conference tourism in these and other zones that have a tradition in tourism means having many advantages, and the advantage is given by the hospitality that characterises many Italian cities and that makes them suitable for conference tourism, too. To sum up, with the development of conference tourism cities like Riccione, with many hotels which can host a big number of visitors and high quality services, can use their resources in all the seasons, contributing to the development of the area in which they rise.

However, hotels with meeting rooms are not enough: to promote conference tourism in a proper way, to take to Italy great numbers, as happens in many European cities, and to host international events, ad hoc congress areas need to be built. Many Italian cities are working to this: a project has just been presented, for example, to build a congress area between Massa Carrara and Viareggio, in Tuscany, to strengthen the tourist offer of that zone and to fill an Italian gap, i.e. the lack of a conference centre that can host a great deal of participants. Big Italian cities, too, are investing in conference tourism: Turin, for example, is striving for a new conference centre, while Rome aims at differentiating and widening its rich offer investing also in this type of tourism, and in Milan, which is probably the Italian city where conference tourism is most developed, the new conference centre for the Milan Expo is already being built.

About the Author

This article was written by Francesca Tessarollo with support from meeting riccione. For any information, please visit suite hotel riccione or for insurance visit week end centro benessere.

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