(9 Feb) – Sicily and Lombardy are choosing tourism to boost their economy in this global crisis. The two regions participate from today to February 12th at the Emitt 2012 – Eastern Mediterranean International Tourism & Travel Exhibition -, the most important fair for travel and tourism services in of the Middle East area. Lombardy and Sicily are present with personalized areas inside the Italian Pavilion, set in the Eni space, to present their offer to the local market. In 2011, a year characterized by a severe crisis, the Middle East tourism market registered a growth of 8, 2% according to Tuik (the National Institute of Statistics). “Turkey is one of the favorite target for Italian investments, it has a young population and is a strategic bridge to the East and the Middle East. The turkish market is growing, not only for the 825 industrial companies in this country but also for the tourism”, told Paolo Rubini the general director of Enit. In Istanbul, Enit will try to intercept the trend from this area with targeted marketing interventions to strengthen the brand ‘Italy’. (Ram)
THE EMITT EXHIBITION: A SPACE FOR TOURISM
The EMITT Exhibition will be held this year for the fifteenth time, between the 09th and the 12th of February, 2012, with the support of the Turkish Republic’s Culture and Tourism Department, in partnership with TUROFED (Turkey Hoteliers Federation), TYD (Tourism Investment Association), sponsored by the THY Corporation and organized by the EKIN-ITE Group. Hosted at TÜYAP Exhibition space, the 2011 edition attracted 4000 participants from 60 countries. The EMITT Exhibition, open to tourism professionals during the first two days and open to the public during the last two, is the only exhibition in the region that, despite the economic crisis, increased 25% compared to the prior year in 2010 and 10% compared to the prior year in 2011. EMITT’s continual and pleasing growth over the past 5 years encouraged the management of the exhibition space to increase the total number of the fair’s rooms from 9 to 12 in 2012.