Conference tourism in Italy is set to boom in 2023 with a 12% increase in the number of events and a significant increase in the number of delegates and attendees, signaling a strong post-COVID recovery and highlighting the industry’s continuing evolution towards high-quality and diverse venues.
ROME – In line with the positive trends in leisure tourism, conference tourism in Italy is also enjoying a very good season.
More and more conferences and business events are being held in Italy.
This is the picture that emerged from a study of Italian conferences and events. [Osservatorio Italiano dei Congressi e degli Eventi-ICE]The study was promoted by the meetings industry association Federcongressi&eventi and carried out by the Graduate School of Economics and International Relations (ASERI) of the Catholic University of the Sacro Cuore.
According to the study, the total number of events held in Italy in 2023 will be 340,057, an increase of 12% compared to 2022. The total number of participants will be 27,152,890 (28% increase compared to 2022) and the total number of visitors will be 41,835,932 (31.9% increase compared to 2022).
Thus, all the main indicators regarding meetings tourism show double-digit growth, a clear indication that after the halt caused by Covid19, companies are starting to invest again in events such as conventions, conferences and product launches as a marketing and retention tool. Meanwhile, associations, especially medical and scientific organizations, have returned to meetings as a means to disseminate and promote knowledge and innovation. The strong performance of Italian meetings tourism is demonstrated by the growth rate of meetings and events: 12% in 2023, triple the pre-Covid annual average of 4.1%, and the number of participants, especially for events of one or more days, has increased by more than 50% from 2022. Forecasts for the current year are also positive in terms of growth in both the number of events and revenues.
“The Italian MICE sector is booming and, in the context of this trend, the meetings industry is going through a phase of great change,” comments Gabriella Gentile, president of Federcongressi&eventi. “Events and meetings today are of increasingly high quality and therefore require state-of-the-art venues in terms of service and technology, as well as trained and constantly updated staff. At the same time, the large influx of tourists and the resulting rise in hotel occupancy rates in destinations historically linked to MICE are encouraging organizers to choose locations outside the more established circuits for their events and meetings, facilitating the off-season and relocation of tourists.”
Meetings and events in Italy: locations and organizers The majority of meetings and events (59%) took place in the North, followed by Central Italy with 24.7%, the South with 10.2% and the islands with 6.1%. In terms of event venues, conference hotels remained the most popular, hosting 77.8% of all events. Conference centres and fairgrounds hosted 3.1% of events. These were the types of venues that showed the highest growth in both number of days (+33.9%) and number of participants (+54.7%) from 2022 onwards. Historical residences other than hotels (monasteries, castles, old inns and farmhouses, historic buildings, villas, etc.) hosted 2.5% of events. By organizer, events organized by companies were 66.3%, up 13.5 points from the previous survey, followed by associations, who remained in second place with 22.3%.
Finally, with regard to the origins of delegates, although the lifting of pandemic restrictions has seen the resumption of international events (i.e. events with a large number of delegates from abroad) and domestic events (events with delegates mainly from outside the region), around half of the events and conferences remain regional in scope (delegates mainly come from the same region as the host) as in previous years.
Event is currently being held.
Roberto Nelli, scientific director of the study and marketing lecturer at the Catholic University of the Sacro Cuore, commented: “The findings highlight two fundamental aspects of the Italian meetings industry: the first is the development of meetings and events venues, which testifies to the process of change taking place within the offering structures that are gradually being reshaped to adapt to changing market demands. The second is the vibrancy of territories that are increasingly taking advantage of their cultural vocation: think of the municipalities included in the ‘Grande Bellezza’.” [Great Beauty] “The clusters that bring together 44% of the venues that accommodate 54% of the total number of Italian event participants, and the regional networks with different manufacturing specializations, ranging from “Made in Italy” (22% of the venues accommodating 19% of the event participants) to urban systems highly specialized in service activities (where 18% of the venues are located and account for 27% of the total participants), clearly show how much the meetings industry can contribute to the development of business from the point of view of network economy.”
Vicky is co-founder and Editor-in-Chief of TravelDailyNews Media Network and is responsible for the day to day operations and financial direction. Vicky holds a BA in Tourism Business Management from the Athens Technical University and a Masters in Business Administration (MBA) from the University of Wales.
She has many years of academic and industrial experience in the travel industry and has written/edited numerous articles for various tourism magazines.
