The “Onlife” travel technology revolution arrives at Stazione Leopolda in Фиренца, Италија, on February 12 as BTO 2020 Travel Onlife with inauguration time at 10.30 am and runs through February 13, 2020. Focus will be on the news coming from China and the driving effect of food and wine in the tourism sector.
On the BTO stage, great space is reserved for Tuscany and Florence. Everything is ready at the Stazione Leopolda to welcome the 12th edition of BTO – Buy Tourism Online – the leading event in Italy on the combination of online travel and innovation.
On February 12 and 13, there will be 2 days of meetings and workshops inspired this year by the Onlife Manifesto of the European Commission which will guide the program designed to offer new interpretations in the tourism sector and above all to overcome the contrast between man and technology.
With 180 speakers from 11 countries and 90 events alongside 17 Toolboxes, BTO2020 will be a real journey between innovation and hospitality, divided into 4 thematic itineraries: Hospitality, dedicated to the independent and chain hotel industry; Destination, route designed for destinations, from governance to territorial marketing; and Digital Strategy & Innovation, transversal contents, supporting tourism managers, consultants, web agencies; and Food and Wine, dedicated to operators in the restaurant, agri-food, and hospitality sector.
BTO is a brand owned by Toscana PromozioneTuristica and the Florence Chamber of Commerce. The organization is entrusted to Toscana Promozione Turistica, Promo Firenze-Special Company of the Florence Chamber of Commerce and Fondazione Sistema Toscana. Some of the most important players in the sector are among the protagonists of BTO2020: from Google to Booking.com, from Hospitalitynet to TripAdvisor, from OpenTable to Just Eat, from Apple Academy to Fareportal, just to name a few. Also confirmed as reference brands in the national and international market are Best Western Italy, Marriott, and Accor Hotel, together with the Italian associations. There will be a strong presence of excellence in education and research such as: IBM Italia Foundation, Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna in Pisa, State University of Milan, Luiss, Ciset, Iulm University, University of Florence, Campus Lucca, Parthenope University, and University of Sassari.
The inauguration of this travel technology event will be followed by a #myTuscany panel at 11 am with big players of the web as protagonists who will tell how international tourism imagines, books, visits, and tells Tuscany, while the actors involved in the area will describe the online engagement strategies.
The panel includes Stefano Ciuoffo, Councilor for Tourism of the Tuscany Region; Francesco Palumbo (Tuscany Tourism Promotion); Paolo Chiappini (Fondazione Sistema Toscana); Albino Caporale (Tuscany Region); and Enrico Plateo (We Chat).
During the 2-day event, the spotlight will also focus on Florence and the new challenges that await the cities of art from the theme of managing large tourist flows. The most innovative tools designed to offer an adequate reception to visitors and make them aware of the territory in which they are staying, will also be presented, as well as through the proposal of alternative experiences, which occurs in the case of FeelFlorence, the new tourist app of the Municipality of Florence that promotes a more sustainable way to divide the Tuscan capital.
Tuscany is still a protagonist thanks to the aperitif curated by Vetrina Toscana in the Tuscany Region and the Unioncamere project that for 20 years has been promoting restaurants and shops telling typicality and identity through events, storytelling, and digital storytelling. This topic is scheduled for 6 pm on the first day of BTO2020.
Also on the topic of food excellence will be the tasting of typical local wines offered by the Sicily region. Among the most awaited events of day one at BTO is the Smart Chinacon panel with 3 Chinese high tech giants: Huawei; Ctrip (the largest platform Asian reservations); and eWeChat (the Chinese social network that also allows paying by registering a bank account) and dealing with the most innovative strategies for online tourism promotion on the Chinese market.
ConLorenza Bonaccorsi (Undersecretary of MIBACT), Francesco Palumbo (Tuscany Tourism Promotion), Stefano Ciuoffo (Tuscany Region), Vincenzo Strangis (Huawei), Coley Dale (Ctrip Group), Enrico Plateo (WeChat) are all on the panel.
In the BTO2020 program, a large space will be dedicated to the theme of sustainability applied to travel technology with a focus on digital management tools, on which the most important brands are personally engaging. For example, BWH Hotel Group – with its World Hotels brands; Best Western Sure Hotel – will illustrate the Stay for the Planet, Stay Plastic Less projects; while Accor will talk about Planet 21, a project with which it sensitizes its guests towards a stay experience that is always sustainable.
