After analyzing the characteristics of the congresses and other corporate and institutional events hosted in the different types of venues from 2014 to 2024, the ebook The Meeting Industry in Italy. Development of the territory and generation of value addresses two fundamental themes that define the legacy business event: on the one hand, the estimation of the economic contribution made by the events to the host territory and, on the other hand, the categorization of Italian municipalities with meeting venues into four "congress clusters" (Congress poles, Industrial heart, Countries of water and culture, Lands of culture and mountains), carried out by taking into consideration, in addition to the variables that traditionally constitute factors of attractiveness of destinations, also the relative economic and productive characteristics.
This approach offers all operators in the sector the opportunity to develop a greater awareness of the factors that determine the overall identity of the territories where the meeting venues are located, an identity that expresses a peculiar experiential ecosystem that generates value through the uniqueness and authenticity of the tourist, cultural, economic and productive offer.
A research at the municipal level, from which it emerged that the Italian Meeting Industry is characterized, both by a strong concentration of supply and demand in only 17 municipalities that configure congress centers of great national and international importance, and by a high fragmentation of the market, divided into almost 4,200 venues spread over 1,700 municipalities that host a total of 72.7% of the events and 61.2% of the participants hosted in Italy in 2024.
The objective geographical fragmentation of congress structures can therefore be interpreted as a potential competitive advantage from a twofold point of view: at the national level, insofar as it expresses Italy's ability to offer countless destinations, each with unique identities and value propositions; at the level of specific destination, as each municipality represents a peculiar experiential ecosystem that generates value through the uniqueness and authenticity of the offer, which can be completed and enriched with that of its neighboring territories or even by creating synergies with other territories that are not contiguous but with similar or complementary "vocations".
Furthermore, the in-depth analysis at the territorial level suggests the opportunity to create networks between the public and private actors of the Meeting Industry, in order to design integrated and transversal "congress products" to several territories and to promote the development of the market in a qualitative and quantitative sense, also thanks to the implementation of specific public support policies, which allow Italy to continue to compete globally, consolidate the results achieved and successfully face the many future challenges. The volume in ebook format can be downloaded free of charge on the website of the Vita e Pensiero publishing house.
THE AUTHORS
Roberto Nelli is Professor of Marketing at the Catholic University of Cremona and Scientific Director of the Italian Observatory of Congresses and Events at the Graduate School of Economics and International Relations of the Catholic University.
Paola Bensi is a senior research analyst in the International Congress Market Analysis Laboratory at the Graduate School of Economics and International Relations of Università Cattolica.
CONTACTS
Vita e Pensiero Press Office ref. tel. 02.7234.2259 | email ufficiostampa.vp@unicatt.it