BTO Kicks off in Florence
Buy Tourism online kicks off in Florence today Nov. 16, 2009. A unique event, not a conference, more of a workshop fostered by the Tuscany Region
Some numbers and an introduction to the event:
- Speakers from Expedia, Tripadvisor, Travelzoo
- A round tabel with Google YAHOO! & BING Travel
- Data from recent surveys comissioned to Eye for Travel and Surrey University
Some preliminary facts:
- between 2002 and 2008 online tourism has grown 54%
- the forecast 2008-2012 is a 14% growth – the off line sector will shrink by 1.2%
- Online represents 16% of all travel related business in 2009 – was 13.7% in 2008
A representative of the Chamber of Commerce of Florence said something very interesting that is going to be central to the entire event: years ago tourist were numbers, today they are people …