Convention Bureau Italia has created Italy for Weddings, its new division to enhance local excellences and promote operators in the Wedding segment abroad.
Italy for Weddings is targeted at Italian Wedding Destinations and its sector operators, with the aim of amplifying their offer and territory in the Destination Wedding compartment.
The mission of Italy for Weddings is to coordinate the Italian Wedding offering, providing professionals in the sector the tools with which to broaden their market and promote themselves abroad thereby becoming a point of reference for Weddings in Italy.
For this reason, Italy for Weddings offers a top range of dedicated services such as personalised research, dedicated promotion on the digital channels of Italy for Weddings, specific training, the acquisition of a constantly updated database of contacts and participation in the most important international trade fairs. In particular, Italy for Weddings offers a choice of three different packages: First Sight, Engagement and Get married. Beginning with the First Sight package which is dedicated to visibility and promotion, and with the subsequent Engagement and Get Married packages, one may take advantage of the know-how of Italy for Weddings for consultation together with the organisation of experiences involving Wedding Planners and Influencers. In addition to this, The Wedding Club has been set up dedicated to the professionals of relevance in the sector. However, it is possible to tap into The Wedding Extra List for those requiring “on-demand” services.
The new division of Convention Bureau Italia has been created as a response to the requests of a sector in full growth in our country: the Wedding. Thanks to the valuable contributions of the Centro Studi Turistici, which carried out the first detailed analysis of the sector in 2018 at the request of CBItalia, the relevance and economic impact of the Wedding supply chain in Italy was brought into focus: many foreign couples choose the Bel Paese annually to celebrate their marriage thus generating large-scale spin-offs.
In particular, the research for 2019 by the Centro Studi Turistici has shown that over 9,200 foreign couples chose to celebrate their wedding in Italy: these events generated about four hundred and seventy-three thousand arrivals and just over 1.5 million overnight stays in the territory, for a turnover that exceeded 540 million euros. These figures show growth as compared to 2018: the number of weddings in Italy increased by 4.8% and overnight stays by 4.2%; lastly, turnover increased by 8 percentage points compared to the previous year.
The top 5 countries with the largest number of couples choosing to wed in Italy are, in first place, the United Kingdom (26.3%), then the United States (23.5%) in second place, followed by Germany (7.9%), Australia (5.8%) and Canada (5.1%).
With regards to the distribution of wedding celebrations in the three main geographical areas, Central Italy still holds the sceptre with over 40% of preferences, although it recorded a slight decrease from 2018 due to the rise in popularity of the North-west on one hand and the South and Islands on the other. Among the favorite destinations of Southern Italy Puglia and Sicily stand out.
To confirm the growing interest in the Wedding segment, we already have the participation of 5 members to Italy for Weddings: Promo Turismo Friuli Venezia Giulia, Convention Bureau Genova, Tuscany For Weddings, the Hotel Principe di Savoia – Dorchester Collection and Giardini del Fuenti.
“We are very satisfied – comments Carlotta Ferrari, President of Convention Bureau Italy – with the launch of our new division Italy For Weddings: as early as 2018 we had appreciated how much need there was in Italy to invest in the industry with its promising growth prospects with the first field research by the Centro Studi Turistici. So we have set up a service to support all the Italian stakeholders: our goal is to create a synergy that promotes our beautiful country and further enhances its excellences abroad”.
“The 2019 update of our survey confirms the positive trend of the destination wedding sector in Italy – explains Sonia Pallai of the Centro Studi Turistici in Florence - The growth of +4.8% of events, and the consequent increase in arrivals and stays, not only shows a growing interest in Italy by foreigners as an ideal location for their wedding but above all, a greater structuring of the offer: in fact, the Italian regions that are organizing to intercept and satisfy demand are increasing, alongside now widely consolidated destinations “.
