Interview with Nicola De Pizzo, Exhibition Manager of TTG Travel Experience, Rimini

The Italian tourism marketplace TTG organized by Italian Exhibition Group took place in Rimini Expo Centre and arrived to almost pre-pandemic attendance levels. 1,800 brands, confirmations and new entries from numerous foreign countries and Italian regions. A large number of educational conferences around the different halls, enriched the visitors with over the top information, thought by and for industry professionals.
You can read here my hightlights in TTG Travel Experience.
Check #GraupixRimini for more details and comments on my social media.I was pleasantly surprised to see exhibitors working, aisles full of visitors and people happy to be back at physical events after so many disastrous months for most of the industries, especially for the tourism, both leisure and MICE.
The figures of TTG:
– 19 halls with 1,800 brands
– 700 buyers from over 40 foreign countries
– 62% from Europe and 38% from outside Europe
– Visitors registering 90% of the number recorded at the 2019 edition
– 9 arenas with 650 hours of discussion and information
I wanted to chat with the main thinking and planning head of the event: Nicola De Pizzo, its director. Nicola is a professional working at IEG for the last 22 years. He is an avid reader of modern Italian literature and loves trekking and cycling and dedicates his professional passion to TTG.I chatted with Nicola De Pizzo to understand how they work and how they see the evolution of the tourism, especially now with/after Covid19.
– How was it to organise TTG Travel Experience after having lots of borders closed?
This year has been a difficult but nothing compared to 2020, in October 2020 we also organised TTG in a much smaller version in order to support the sector and because the professionals wanted to have a place to meet, even if physical meetings were not easy, and even if most of the tourism events organised just online events. IEG Group decided to go ahead to be with the tourism sector even in the difficult times.
In 2021, we see the end of the tunnel, meaning, even of borders are closed, most of the countries are showing their willingness to receive travellers and this is why TTG has been the best platform for them. We are just waiting, especially for Asia to reopen, and create trust and confidence to travel the world again.
Our main message this year’s TTG has been trust in people, in nature, in life and in nature.– Are you planning to open TTG to the consumers? to the public, perhaps on the weekend?
Not really, the model we developed for the past years is a B2B exhibition and we want to serve the tour operators and the different countries and regions exhibiting. We do believe in our model, with three days is the best way to support the tourism sector.
– What are you looking for with the Partner Country?
We want to highlight a country that either is not so well known, either has undergone lots of efforts to showcase its beauties. Of course, we want to liaise with the country partner in terms to arrive to lots of visitors and the awareness of the importance of travelling.
This year’s newcomer in the market has been Saudi Arabia which has been a truly amazing partner. They chose the most important Travel & Tourism Exhibition in Italy to promote their country and we are happy about it.– Which challenges are you facing for TTG 2022?
Our dates for 2022 are 12-14 October, which are the best dates for the tour operators, after the summer peak season and preparing the catalogues and proposals for the next seasons.
We are willing to enlarge the international participation as we do believe borders will slowly open everywhere, and of course we want to bring the world to TTG. The most important is to have a great offer for the visitors, and of course this means a lot of countries and actors from all over the world.– What else do you consider very important for TTG?
No doubt our conferences programme is one of the key factors of our success: we want to enhance education and best practices. We organised, together with our partners, over 200 events were staged with more than 250 speakers in nine «Arenas» for 650 hours of discussion and information, a choice for everyone.I added to my calendar 12-14th October 2022 because I will be back in TTG Travel Experience in Rimini, which has been truly useful.