BTO online tourism expo reaches accord with art cities

FLORENCE, ITALY – Buy Tourism Online (BTO), the online tourism expo based in Florence, Italy, has reached an agreement with major Italian art cities to help better manage tourism influxes for sustainable tourism as well as share best practices for improving the cities and joining forces into one system.

The agreement provides for implementation on an experimental basis of a nationwide regulatory system that would establish a registry for citizens offering tourist lodgings, as well as a requirement for lodging agents, including those who operate only online, to work only with lodgings properly listed in the registry.

The memorandum of understanding within the network of the Great Italian Destinations for Sustainable Tourism was signed in Florence by the tourism councilors of Florence, Naples, Milan, Venice, and Rome.

Another important part of the accord for the major art cities is recognition of the tourism-lodging nature of short leases that take place in urban contexts.

The figures relating to the ninth edition of BTO, the leading trade fair event for the online travel business, exceed the very positive results already achieved in 2015.

Over 10,000 attendances recorded in two days with  ticket sales up by 10% and 20% more exhibitors and sponsors. The trade fair, with its 148 collateral events hosted in two Main Halls (one of which dedicated to international guests with debates conducted exclusively in English), and 7 Focus Halls, has brought to Florence 198 speakers and 400 accredited journalists and bloggers. 62 exhibitors took part (+10% compared 2015) comprising 8 non-Italian companies (from Spain, Great Britain, Switzerland and USA) and as many as 13 local Italian operators : Tuscany, Latium, Liguria, Basilicata, Sicily, Apulia, Abruzzo, Sardinia, Lombardy, Emilia Romagna, Marche, Umbria and Piedmont Caves. BTO – Buy Tourism Online is a brand owned by Toscana Promozione Turistica / the Region of Tuscany and the Florence Chamber of Commerce. It is organized by the Fondazione Sistema Toscana and PromoFirenze – a special company of the Florence Chamber of Commerce.