Dhaka: Italy’s conference tourism sector continues its strong upward trajectory, with the 2024 edition of the Italian Survey of Conferences and Events reporting 367,981 events held—an 8.2pc increase over 2023.

Delegates rose to 29.3 million (+7.8pc) and total attendance reached 47.2 million (+12.9pc).

The data, compiled by ASERI at Università Cattolica and promoted by industry body
Federcongressi&eventi, underscores the sector’s growing importance, contributing €11.746 billion in direct economic impact, according to research by tourism board ENIT and ASERI.

Federcongressi&eventi President Gabriella Gentile highlighted Italy’s world-class venues, professional standards, and global competitiveness as key drivers.

Most events took place in northern Italy (57.7pc), with conference hotels hosting the lion’s share (76.8pc).

Trade fair venues saw a 26.2pc surge in delegate numbers. Company-organised events dominated (65.4pc), while international events rose to 13.4pc, up over four points from 2023.

Investments by venues focused on staff training, facility upgrades, communications, and AV tech, reflecting the sector's adaptability in a fast-evolving global landscape.

In order to respond to market changes in an increasingly effective manner, most of the investments made in 2024 by event and conference venues were in staff training.

These were followed, in order, by investments in refurbishing indoor spaces, in developing promotional and/or communication tools, and in upgrading audio-visual equipment.

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