ITB Berlin News 2021 - Day 1 Edition

I EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW I
Italy continues to be top-of-mind as the ultimate destination for travellers from all
around the globe. We asked Giorgio Palmucci, President, ENIT – Italian National Tourist
Board, how the country is fairing in light of the Covid-19 crisis.
ABOUT ENIT
The promotion of Italy across the world has never
stopped, and neither has the desire to come and
visit the peninsula. The pandemic has upset plans
and projects of the entire tourism sector, forcing
operators and other professionals to redesign new
strategies, but Italy remains undeniably a top-ofmind
destination.
The country continues to be one of the top preferred
destinations and this is also demonstrated by
searches and mentions on social media, where
Italy is among the most searched words. It is
also an absolute leader in long-haul tourism in
Europe: a quarter of tourists from outside Europe
come to Italy and therefore the peninsula suffers
particularly from the blocking of flights from longhaul
countries. Here, ENIT is trying to strengthen
Italy's position with an operation to maintain the
brand through promotional activities.
The international networking activity conducted
by ENIT between institutions, organisations, SMEs
and operators in the sector aims to implement and
update the ways of creating and promoting the
tourism offering. We have developed more than
30 marketing campaigns, at least one for each
country with ENIT representative offices around
the world. We immediately started developing
a dashboard on the sector, with national and
international monitoring to provide useful tools and
data for the restart of the sector. We also launched
and implemented a free app for smartphones that
offers tastes of Italy to be experienced, then lived.
Although Italy has been hit hard by the crisis,
have there been "bright spots"?
Italy showed peaks during the crisis with places
that nearly sold out last summer thanks to both
domestic tourism and local European tourism.
There was no shortage of tourists from the UK and
Ireland, thanks to the maintenance of a “corridor”
that remained open until October, allowing for an
extension of the season, a prospect that we also
expect for 2021.
What will be the key elements of your post-Covid
strategy?
A value growth strategy will focus on the launch of
a new positioning of destination Italy in the world,
more contemporary and built on sustainability,
diversity and inclusivity. Such a vision requires
a strong synergy between the public and the
private sectors, between destinations and among
cities that have been more heavily affected
by the pandemic. A contemporary vision also
means giving more attention to innovation in
“green” tourism, and positioning the Italian
brand to new generations of travellers across
rapidly growing markets. Finally, we will work
to have an increasingly pervasive presence on
the global digital ecosystem to strengthen our
competitiveness, also thanks to training activities
aimed at the sector.
Which markets will you mainly focus on in the
coming months?
In the short term, operational marketing actions
will focus on European proximity markets and
the Russian market, not forgetting medium-haul
travellers, such as the Gulf countries and Israel.
At the same time, positioning will continue both
on traditional markets with the USA, Brazil,
Australia and on China and Southeast Asia, which
will restart in 2022 but which must be followed
very carefully and with particular reference to the
development of air connections.
THE DISRUPTION
PRESENTED BY
THE PANDEMIC
HAS ACCELERATED
A PROCESS OF
INNOVATION AND
RETHINKING THE
CURRENT OFFER.
Please tell us about your roadmap.
ENIT's three-year planning has focused on
value-driven growth, focusing on sustainability.
The disruption presented by the pandemic has
accelerated a process of innovation and rethinking
the current offer. This is indispensable in gaining
competitiveness and maintaining the international
leadership of our country.
How important are ITB events in terms of creating
promotional opportunities for Italy?
They are an opportunity to maintain relations with
our main market, to learn more about the change
underway and to allow our companies to make use
of a promo-marketing platform
Today, Tuesday,
09 March 2021
16:30 - 17:00
ITB PRESS
CONFERENCE 1
Italian National
Tourism Board
ENIT – Italian National Tourist Board
works to promote Italy all around the
world. The promotion is carried out
with a corporate strategy that is “made
in Italy”. It is implemented through
local offices and partnerships with
embassies, Italian culture institutes
abroad, the Italian Trade Agency,
chambers of commerce, trade unions
and Italy’s regions. In the next few
years, Italy’s tourism development will
be focused on a valuable growth to
generate economic, social and cultural
sustainability: enhance tourism supply,
increase the value of the territories
and businesses, as well as market
relevance. Marketing strategies are
based on the knowledge of trends,
tourists, and products thanks to
the internal Department of Market
Research and Statistics / National
Tourism Observatory of ENIT. These
strategies are developed for each
individual market due to a precise
demand segmentation. Operational
marketing supports the products’
commercialisation to strengthen the
existing tourism-related products,
introducing new ones into traditional
markets as well as breaking into
markets with a high growth potential.
Moreover, the digital strategy covers
any action of the agency in an allencompassing
way
VISIT
BRAND CAR D
ITB BERLIN NEWS • TUESDAY 9 TH MARCH 2021 11