The pandemic has had powerful effects on the Italian tourism industry, not only because it has drastically reduced turnover, but also because it has pushed operators to invest in digital innovation, has increased direct bookings at the expense of online agencies such as Booking and Expedia. the business travel sector has been transformed and almost eliminated.
Business travel, destined for an epochal post-pandemic reorganization, will be one of the issues addressed by the BTO of Florence, the review on online tourism that for thirteen years has been trying to outline trends and new tools in the sector.
100 meetings 300 speakers
This year BTO branches out into five thematic days (24,25,26,29 and 30 November) crowded with 100 meetings and 300 speakers, and in three locations, but above all it is held with a hybrid formula: speakers and participants will be only in starts “live”, and for the rest connected via web. Some speakers will be present remotely but in the form of a hologram, ‘Star Wars’ style technology that produces realistic effects.
Testimonials from around the world
“We will have the opportunity to hear testimonies from all over the world, including the great experts in the sector that it would have been unthinkable to bring to Florence, thanks to the use of all physical and virtual tools”, says Francesco Tapinassi, scientific director of BTO. The review, organized by the Tuscany Region and the Florence Chamber of Commerce, will present, among other things, a research on business travel resulting from interviews with 2,500 Italian managers: they replied that in the last two years they have traveled much less, and that in in the future they will try to travel only if strictly necessary (and otherwise they will use virtual connections). «Bto will try to outline the forms of change – says Tapinassi – and to make it clear that a meeting on Zoom or on Meet is not necessarily bad luck. In this way the business trip will be able to regain pleasure and value, and the work ‘mission’ can be considered an opportunity to discover places and uses ».
The change of habits
The change in the habits of travelers, whether for business or for holidays. is the real knot to be interpreted after the terrible 2020: “The Bdo will have the task of redesigning the strategies for relaunching and developing international tourism,” says Giuseppe Salvini, general secretary of the Florence Chamber of Commerce. Bto’s working days will be dedicated to digital innovation, destination, food and wine, hospitality; the inauguration will be held in the Salone de ‘Cinquecento in Palazzo Vecchio with the testimonies of 22 experts in the sector and the previews of the four themes then developed in the following days. The acronym Bto, which originally meant Buy Tourism Online, has now been replaced by Be Travel onlife.