The figures are in line with last year’s edition, with a strong international presence, and quality business contacts: during Bit 2009 tourism Operators appeared motivated to develop solutions to the economic crisis in order to be ready for future economic recovery. These are the results of the 29th edition of Bit - the International Tourism Exchange, which finished yesterday in the fieramilano area in Rho.

The most important tourism fair in Italy and one of the four most important fairs in the world opened last Thursday with the highest possible level of institutional representatives in attendance, and the figures are substantially in line with those of the previous edition: 153.800 visitors overall: of these 101.000 were professional Operators (81.500 Italian Operators and 19.500 overseas Operators).

“In such a difficult economic situation” commented Adalberto Corsi, the President of Fiera Milano Expocts and Commissary Vice-President of the Unione del Commercio (Union of Commerce) of  Milan, “Bit has confirmed the validity of a formula which is able to renew itself year after year, offering a timely and effective response to the constantly changing needs of the markets. In particular, the increasing level of Bit’s international role is extremely important in the current situation and for the challenges that our country will face in the coming years, above all in Lombardy, the most important of which are Expo 2015 and the protection of the Milanese airports system”.

“In a moment in which economic difficulties affect the most important fairs, to achieve the same figures as last year’s record edition is a reason to feel extremely satisfied” stated Corrado Peraboni, the Chief Executive Officer of Fiera Milano Expocts. “The issues that have emerged in recent months have been confirmed: companies are cutting back investment, concentrating on events where there is an international market presence. This shows that our decision to focus on the International aspects of the event and on the segmentation of supply was right: it is not a coincidence that the workshop dedicated to religious tourism was one of the successes of this event. By continuing to follow this strategy, in other words segmentation and internationalism, from tomorrow we will be working on innovation, which along with increasing web 2.0 integration, will give additional impulse to the next edition. Next year Bit will be hosting a ‘overseas versus overseas’ exchange reserved for foreign professional Operators”.

The increasing internationalism of the event was in fact one of the distinctive elements of this edition. The over 5.000 companies represented at the event came from 140 different countries, of which 9 were new entries -  Botswana, Bulgaria, Cambodia, the Fiji islands, the Philippines, Georgia, Montenegro, Slovakia, and Zimbabwe - and two prestigious comebacks, Kenya and Jordan.

In line with Bit’s tradition as a focused business event, this edition was particularly appreciated by the Exhibitors for the quality levels of the contacts: many of them informed us of an increase in useful professional contacts in relation to the number of visitors. The turnout for members of the public, which reached 52.800 visitors, is also a significant figure. The 30th edition of Bit - the International Tourism Exchange - will be held in the fieramilano area in Rho from Thursday 18 to Sunday 21 February 2010.