Bit 2025, Success among Industry Professionals as Tourism Looks to the Future
by Massimo Terracina
The success of the 45th edition confirms the value of the event as a forerunner of trends, innovation, technology and quality products for industry operators. Wide participation of international buyers interested in Italy's offer, customized trips, proposals for new market niches.
With a significant turnout of professional operators and travelers, the 45th edition of BIT – International Tourism Exchange, closed the curtain with an extremely positive balance, confirming its strategic role as a point of reference in Italy for the innovation and evolution of the tourism product.
An event that, thanks to the high number of media from all over the world, continues to be the most effective sounding board for the sector.
An edition dedicated to quality and innovation
BIT 2025, which took place in the new location at Fiera Milano, saw the participation of over 1,000 exhibitors from 64 countries, with a wide and diversified offer, capable of giving operators effective tools and ideas to move competently in a constantly evolving sector and to satisfy the needs of increasingly informed travellers, in search of authentic and original experiences.
The presence of thousands of international buyers confirmed the role of BIT 2025 as a global reference event. The buyers' attention was focused on the search for new destinations and innovative and quality travel proposals, with a particular focus on unique and hyper-personalised experiences.
To complete the networking between supply and demand, the over 40 talks in the Bringing Innovation Into Travel program, attended by hundreds of spectators, touched on some of the most topical topics of the moment: from artificial intelligence, Big Data and other challenges of digitalization, to solutions to overcome overtourism, up to new consumer trends in the name of emotions, passions, motivations and lifestyles.
In a sector characterized by strong technological innovation, expertise and valuable relationships, the BIT4Job event area, organized in collaboration with Lavoro Turismo and Welcome Travel Group, represented an important opportunity to promote the meeting between job supply and demand, with a particular focus on the new professions and skills required by the market. One of the strengths of BIT4Job was the ability to combine tourism events and business, showing young people the attractiveness of the sector and reducing the distance between school and the world of work.
«The sector - comments Adriano Apicella, CEO of WTG - is evolving towards a hybrid model. Human skills in this sector are integrated with new technologies, including AI, to offer tailor-made experiences, because direct knowledge of destinations remains an added value».
Hyper-personalization and social sustainability. The trends that emerged at BIT
The tourism sector is evolving with increasingly thematic, sustainable and personalized experiences. According to the UNWTO, 2025 will see growth in international tourism between +3% and +5%, while in Italy the induced effects generated by the Milan-Cortina Olympics will be between 2.3 and 3 billion euros.
Among the new trends, tourism linked to natural phenomena stands out, with night tourism and astro tourism in strong growth. 61% of travelers are willing to travel to admire the Northern Lights, while 60% look for areas with low light pollution to observe the stars. Wellness tourism is also evolving, focusing on longevity paths, innovative therapies and immersive sensory trips.
Sports tourism is also growing, with particular attention to winter sports in view of the Olympics. Gig tripping, i.e. trips planned around concerts and festivals, is increasingly popular among young people, while shopping tourism is changing: Gen Z is looking for unique and authentic products outside the tourist routes, contributing to the success of Made in Italy and luxury shopping, with Milan as the protagonist.
Among the transversal megatrends that have emerged, the hyper-personalization of the travel experience, favored by artificial intelligence, and social sustainability alongside environmental sustainability stand out. Attention to ESG policies becomes central to tourism that aims for a balance between economic growth and protection of resources.
