FCI 025 – The Italian Travel Industry

In October, I attended the Italian travel industry trade show TTGIncontri for the second year in a row. Basically it’s an exposition about the size of three football stadiums filled with travel brands and travel destinations from around the world. Companies and tourist boards all congregate for three days in Rimini to convince wholesale buyers to send retail clients their way.

Associated with this event is Travel Blogger Destination Italy (TBDI), a forum for connecting digital media influencers with travel brands in Italy and beyond. This year, I was fortunate enough to be one of the (English) speakers, along with blogger superstar Melvin from Travel Dudes and photographer/filmmaker extraordinaire Andy from Torch Studios.

My talk was about podcasting. If you want to see the Power Point slides from my presentation, they are available on SlideShare via LinkedIn, entitled, “Podcasting for Travel Bloggers.”

Speaking my podcast, one of the fun methods that I’ve been experimenting with lately is live interviews. You may have listened to my Rome Expat Series recently. Well, today I’m sharing a collection of short interviews with Italy-based travel brands and destinations that I talked to while in Rimini. I hope that you will enjoy them, and perhaps you might get some ideas to inspire your next trip to Italy. In fact, most of these are destinations that I’ve never been to myself, so that’s what prompted me to select these particular individuals.

Italian Travel Industry Stories

The theme that runs through this episode is summed up in the question that I posed to several of these people: “After someone’s first trip to Italy in which they visited Rome, Florence, and Venice, what should the curious travel plan for their second or third visit?”

Let me briefly introduce them to you.

Salvatore – Costa D’Amalfi Lemon Tour These guys were the best! During the “Meet Your Blogger Day,” they had a stand in our area offering mozzarella di buffala, cured meats, and yes, limoncello at 11:00 in the morning. We wouldn’t have survived without them!!

Alberto – Incoming Liguria and Costa Edutainment  It was great to talk to Alberto about a tourist itinerary in Genova on the eve of Columbus Day. The famous explorer’s hometown is at the top of my list for my next visit to the North. And they have three new “puppies” at their aquarium: a dolphin, a shark, and a manatee.

NOBODY – Vatican Museums: You’ll notice that there’s no link here. Well, it’s because the Vatican Museums didn’t want to talk to me. I wanted to ask about any special preparations for the upcoming Jubilee. All I got was a dismissive shrug. I realize that they don’t need Rick Zullo to help promote the event, but would kill them to at least be polite about it?

Claudia – Friuli Venezia Giulia/PromoTrieste and Grotta Gigante  This area is really appealing to me. It’s actually a mix of Italian, Austrian, and Slovenian culture, located very close to the Croatian coast. I haven’t been yet, but I have a feeling that when I do go, it won’t really seem like the areas of Italy that I’m already familiar with.

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