Congresses & Events in Italy: Healthy growth and excellent forecasts for the year ahead

“Made In Italy” – Further growth for the MICE industry in Italy

According to a study conducted between June and October 2015 by staff of the Alta Scuola di Economia e Relazioni Internazionali (ASERI) in collaboration with the University Cattolica, Italian event planners witnessed healthy growth in 2014. During the year 2014, 308,000 events were planned, which involved over 25 million participants and guests. The study found that most of these events took place in northern Italy – with around 57% of the total. Central Italy saw 30%, with the remainder taking place in the south and the Italian islands. According to the study, around 60% of all events had a strong local impact, due to the involvement of local customers, staff members and organisers. On the other hand, 30% of the events were of an international character, involving international associations, companies or institutions.

The most common location for these events were hotel conference facilities, with 70% of the total. Popular venues included northern Italian cities like Milan, Turin and Bologna, where there is an ever increasing number of high quality hotels equipped to cater for such conferences. Very large events were often held in fair and congress centres. Milan’s MiCo Conference Centre was the most popular larger venue, along with the huge fairgrounds of Fiera Milano in Rho. For smaller events, ancient sites and historic buildings were often preferred – with cities like Florence, Verona and Venice at the forefront.

Exact figures for events in 2015 are not yet available. However, it seems like significant growth was experienced again. Once more, this growth seems to have been particularly strong in northern Italy. For example, in November Milan hosted ITMA – the largest international trade fair for textile machinery manufacturers.

Congresses & Events in Italy: Future Prospects

The future for the MICE industry seems likely to offer greater growth, especially for international companies staging product launches on the Italian market. Milan and northern Italy will once again be leading the way. For example, Milan’s MiCo Congress Centre has been confirmed as the venue for 2018’s European Human Genetics Conference, as well as the 24th World Congress of Dermatology.