Tag: Italy

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Mövenpick Hotel Villa Pamphilli, Rome opening this year

Movenpick is opening a new hotel in Rome. Villa Pamphilli, it was due to be open this summer, but may be delayed by the Coronavirus outbreak.

The property was a hotel which closed several years ago and is being completely renovated with a new lobby lounge which wraps around the bar to make the most of views of the terraced gardens and surrounding Valle dei Casali park.  There is a destination rooftop which has panoramic views of the city and countryside.

The hotel is 15 minutes away from the Vatican City.  Fiumicino Airport is a 30-minute drive away, and the transfer to Termini Railway Station takes 25 minutes.

Movenpick Villa Pamphilli has a Congress Center of 14 rooms spread over three floors with flexible spaces to increase the room sizes.  The main meeting room has capacity for 460 people in theatre-style.   

There are two restaurants, the American and a pool bar next to the swimming pool, solarium and spa.  All of the 235 bedrooms have balconies.

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Convention Bureau Italia showcase Italy as a meetings destination

Italy at Hand, an international meetings event organised by Convention Bureau Italia to showcase Italy as a meetings destination, has reported a successful event.

The event, which was held at Auditorium Parco della Musica in Rome between 7 and 9 November, welcomed more than 180 participants.

These delegates included those from the public sector as well as special guests such as Ray Bloom, president and founder of IMEX Group and Patrick Delaney, managing partner of Sool Nua, who are both leading figures in international meetings and events industry.

A total of 1,165 business meetings were held during the three-day event between 45 international buyers from both events agencies and in-house corporate event teams and 35 Italian exhibitors which aimed to showcase Italy as an events destination.

“Project quality, love of one’s country and a strong innovative drive in the international MICE sector: these are the ingredients that gave birth to Italy at Hand, The Event, the second edition of which has just ended with resounding public success,” said Carlotta Ferrari, president of Convention Bureau Italia.

“We take pride in the enthusiasm of the participants and the satisfaction of the Buyers and Exhibitors. They are a clear demonstration of the validity of our idea: to show the best of Italian know-how to the whole world, without neglecting creativity and enjoyment. I would like to thank the whole CBItalia team as well as our partners, who together have allowed Italy at Hand – The Event 2019 to achieve such excellent results.”

Italy at Hand also incorporated interactive activities to break up the monotony of back-to-back meetings. The activities were based on four themes, art, love, rituality and innovation, which, according to the event organisers, are Italian characteristics that only “hands can express”.

Next year, the Italy at Hand event will be held in Matera, a city on the rocky outskirts of the Basilicata region, in southern Italy.

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Italy sees International events on the rise with 8.1 per cent increase in 2018

Italy has seen a jump in the number of international events, which have a significant proportion of overseas participants, increase from 7.9 per cent in 2017 to 8.1 per cent in 2018.

Most conferences and events (59.5 per cent) are local in dimension – with participants (excluding speakers) mainly coming from the same region as the host venue.

Overall, conferences and events held in Italy increased by 5.8 per cent in 2018, with participant figures slightly down (-2.4 per cent).

The decrease in growth figures was due to a fall in conferences promoted by international associations.

As a result, the recommendation was that Italy needs to undertake more promotional activities to combat competition from other destinations.

“Internationalisation, planning and quality are the three elements Italy needs to compete and get out of the impasse we have observed in the associations markets,” said Alessandra Albarelli, president of Federcongressi&eventi.

“Internationalisation means strengthening Convention Bureau Italia’s role in promoting the country as a MICE destination, in partnership with national tourist board ENIT; planning consists of implementing, together with all the institutions, particularly the Ministry of Agricultural, Food and Forestry Policies and Tourism, long-term, targeted strategic activities for the sector.”

The latest results are from the Italian Survey of Conferences and Events, the research project by Italy’s meeting industry association Federcongressi&eventi.

Professor Roberto Nelli, who headed up the survey made some recommendations: “A first attempt at mapping events and conferences hosted in Italy shows that, given the current situation in which most events are hosted in places that can be described as part of Italy’s ‘Great Beauty’, it is possible to identify meeting industry development strategies that leverage the strengths of certain regions: for example, those with vast potential in their cultural and natural heritage that has not been fully exploited.”

Hotels and conference centres were the best performers. Conference hotels play host to most events: 80.6 per cent of the total, +6.9 per cent versus 2017. Conference centres also performed well, accounting for 3.2 per cent of total events (+3.9 per cent) but also registering the highest average number of events per venue: 156.3.