MILANO – February 13th saw the final day of an extremely dynamic edition of Bit - International Tourism Exchange, with 46 thousand visitors, 2,550 representatives accredited by the Italian and global media, including 500 travel bloggers and 1,500 top Italian and international profiled buyers from 79 different countries, with particularly large delegations from Central and South America, the Middle East, Eastern Europe, Russia and the USA.
“With more than 34,100 booked meetings and almost 15 thousand meetings all done and dusted and business matching has cemented its status as one of our top strengths” says Fabrizio Curci, CEO of Fiera Milano Spa. “The conversion rate that has increased to 43% (from 29% in 2017), underlines our ability to organise an increasingly targeted match between supply and demand. Bit has once again proven to be a leading platform for the building of relationships for Italian operators, as well as a point of reference for the entire Euro-Mediterranean area”.
The outstanding quality of the content, with data, trends and specialist insights, is also worth highlighting, considering that it renders the Bit formula especially effective and supports the operators in their challenge to meet the ever-personalised and multi-targeted requirements of the modern-day tourist industry. The operators particularly appreciated the equal involvement of both operators and travellers and the opportunity to kick-start new partnerships and collaborations.
“Once again, this year we are extremely satisfied with this key event, which has confirmed its role as an important occasion to strengthen our relationship with the sector players and travel agents that continue to represent our main distribution channel. We also appreciated the opportunity provided by Sunday’s opening to the public, since this generated an excellent turnout. For us, 2018 is a year awash with new developments and our participation at Bit has enabled us to explain this in great detail to all those who came to visit us at our stand or press conference”, confirmed Leonardo Massa, MSC Crociere Country Manager.
An exceptionally successful event was also enjoyed by Antonella Prete, Manager of the Tourism & Attractions sector for the Lombardy Region, who added: “The outcome of the 2018 edition of Bit is both positive and encouraging. Thanks to the trade fair, we were able to launch an important collaboration with the Region of Puglia, intended to promote differences. Our projects are becoming increasingly international even if, for the time being, it tends to be Italians who are most interested in our region”.
