FLORENCE, ITALY – In 2016, the smart phone confirms its absolute primacy as mobile tool for online booking. Worldwide, during the second quarter of 2016, travel and holiday accommodation bookings by mobile rose to 19%, up 33% over the same period last year. A similar increase was recorded in Italy, where 16% of online bookings takes place via smart phone, with an improvement of 46% over the figure recorded in 2015*. This is some of the information that will be presented at the ninth edition of BTO – Buy Tourism Online, the reference event dedicated to the relationship between Travel & Innovation, scheduled to take place in Florence, at Fortezza da Basso, on 30 November and 1 December 2016.
The 2016 edition will unfold around 148 events and will devote to major rendezvous an area twice as big as in past editions, including, besides the Oracle Main Hall, the area reserved for international guests and debates rigorously held in English, the UniCredit Main Hall, the venue of the Italian sessions, and 7 Focus Halls. Leading roles at the two-day event in Florence will be played by the most important brands of the international tourism industry, including: Airbnb, Homeaway, The Priceline Group, Booking.com, TripAdvisor, Expedia. Historic hotel chains, such as Best Western, Accor, UNA Hotels & Resort, will also be present, together with recently established chains, such as The Student Hotel and Room Mate Hotels. In 2017, this last one will open in Florence, near Palazzo del Sonno, a 400-room structure for students as well as other guests. The leitmotif of all the meetings will be “Why!”. BTO 2016, in fact, wants to go beyond the logic of “how” and explore the reasons why, thinking in terms of lives instead of beds, and promoting a discussion on why individuals, families, couples, choose to travel in search of new routes and new emotions. www.intoscana.it will stream live the events taking place in the Oracle Hall and UniCredit Main Hall.
Oracle Main Hall
Taking the limelight at the Oracle Hall will be international guests and renowned companies in this sector, including Mark Levy and Matteo Stifanelli from Airbnb, Adrian Hands from TripAdvisor, Walter Lo Faro from Expedia and Glenn Fogel, from The Priceline Group, interviewed by Philip Wolf, founder of Phocuswright. Not to be missed is the panel discussion that will see the participation of Peter Verhoven, general manager of Booking.com, and Helena Egan from TripAdvisor, moderated by Giancarlo Carniani, scientific director of BTO 2016. Christopher Nurko, Global Chairman of FutureBrand, will illustrate the results of a recent investigation into State Branding practices in the U.S., based on studies conducted for more than eight years on Country Branding; Javier Delgado Muerza from Google will address the future of Big G. The future of hôtellerie in Italy will be discussed by Giovanna Manzi from Best Western, Brian McCabe from JDB Hotels and Renzo Iorio from Accor. At the end of the day, Fabio Lazzerini from Emirates Italia, John Alborante from Ryanair, Marco Savini from BigRock and Riccardo Staglianò, author of the book “In your place”, will address the issue of the way the Internet and technology have changed the world of labour and the consequences of the fourth industrial revolution.
UniCredit Main Hall
Among the protagonists of the programs to take place at the UniCredit Hall we shall see: Andrea Bartoli, the notary who created a centre for independent culture, the Farm Cultural Park, to bail out through art a difficult territory in Favara (AG); Michil Costa, owner of Hotel La Perla in Corvara will narrate his story made of sustainability and social equality. Plenty of coups de théâtre will characterise the debate on the future of Italian tourism between journalist Carlo Cambi and an expert of the trade such as Antonio Pezzano; about the business models of home sharing we will hear from Cristina Pagetti, country manager for Italy of Homeexchange.com and author of the book “Welcome to your home”, and Marcello Mastioni from HomeAway. Alfonso Pecorario Scanio and Anna Paola Concia will talk about the relationship between Italy and Germany and stereotypes, starting with the battle to add pizza to the world’s intangible heritage; the weight of online conversations will be the focus of the speech delivered by Giovanni Boccia Artieri; while Euro Beinat, professor of Geoinformatics at the University of Salzsburg, will speak about artificial intelligence and data analysis. The video game industry as a tool for the promotion of the territory will be theme addressed with Stefano Monti from Monti & Taft and Fabio Viola from TuoMuseo; cultural innovation will be discussed with Giovanna Barni from CoopCulture, Claudio Bocci from Federculture, Roberto Ferrari from the Tuscany Region, and Francesco Palumbo from MiBACT. Not to be missed is the double interview with Roberta Milano, who returns to BTO as ENIT digital marketing manager, and Gianni Bastianelli, ENIT CEO, in which they will talk about relaunch strategies for the Italian National Agency for Tourism. Also noteworthy is a panel dedicated to the digitisation of SMEs, where plans to improve the web and social visibility of these companies will be discussed with representatives from the Chamber of Commerce of Florence and the Italian Ministry of Labour.
Italy & Tuscany key players
This year again, BTO will be attended by many Italian regions besides Tuscany: i.e., Basilicata, Liguria, Lombardy, Puglia, Abruzzo, Marche, Sicily, Sardinia, Lazio, Umbria and Emilia Romagna.
Where Tuscany is concerned, we should mention the rendezvous ‘Destination Tuscany 2020’, with extensive information on regional strategies and new data on the flow of tourists (Wednesday, 30 November, at 11.25 am); the presentation of the project Toscana Wine Architecture, whereby 14 cellars designed by great masters of architecture have been linked into a network; the panel on tourism as an opportunity for contamination in places where coexistence is difficult, proposed by International Institute Life Beyond Tourism & Foundation Romualdo Del Bianco; the results of the interregional project Terre di Piero. In the footsteps of an itinerant master and the launch of a new initiative, Dante Project – Dantesque itineraries, born of a collaboration between the regions of Tuscany and Emilia Romagna in the field of cultural tourism.
BTO 2016: focus on education
By popular request, the educational rendezvous are back. Among the key themes addressed at the 2016 edition of BTO: the hosts of the sharing economy; the new booking engines; personalised web strategies; Foodiscovery and the ethics of reputational indices; Digital Detox products, for a vacation geared to a new body, mind and technology balance; chats as new communication channels between brand and consumers; a comparison between Snapchat and Instagram Stories, in the matter of company storytelling tools.
Events of special interest
Among the new features of BTO 2016 is the Startup Italian Open contest (www.startupitalianopen.com) promoted and supported by Fondazione Sistema Toscana and PromoFirenze in collaboration with Phocuswright Europe and Travel Appeal. From among a range of realities in the field of tourism selected for the contest, it will reward the most innovative, which, in May 2017 will fly to Amsterdam to attend the Phocuswright Europe international conference.
A food experience which blends history and irony will see the Jewish Ashkenazi cuisine of Central Eastern Europe battle against the Sephardic cuisine of Spanish origin and the Jewish cuisine of Italy in the course of the event Gan Eden Restaurant. Six thousand years of joy and sorrow in traditional Jewish cuisine, with two outstanding challengers, Giuseppe Burschtein and Ugo Caffaz.
Marta4kids is the name of the project that Christian Capello will illustrate at BTO. An extraordinary story born of an experience of family sorrow that became a journey of trust for many people suffering from cystic fibrosis and also an opportunity to see a different side of Italy. 4000 km covered by Chris in the company of hundreds of fellow travellers who accepted his invitation and shared with him a stretch of the road: from Bassano to Sicily passing through 17 Italian regions.
BTO – Buy Tourism Online is a trademark of Toscana Promozione Turistica / the Tuscan Region and the Chamber of Commerce of Florence. BTO 2016 is entrusted to Fondazione Sistema Toscana and PromoFirenze – Special Agency of the Chamber of Commerce of Florence. BTO Educational is the organisation responsible for putting together the scientific program and the engagement of BTO 2016.