BTO – Buy Tourism Online

The continuing transformation of the productive processes and the way people decide to buy their holidays completely changed the link between demand and supply. Tuscany Region shared the intuition of an entrepreneur, creating since 2008 a unique event in its kind for the tourism industry in Italy, that has gained interest also at a European level and involves public and private stakeholders as well as national and international experts in digital tourism. BTO is devoted to the online market segment, promotion of web-marketing, spreading of the web distribution channels, training of professionals through seminars and workshops. This event is also an opportunity to promote the image of the economic system of Tuscany that uses and spreads new technologies in the tourism sector. The property of BTO trademark and the domain are 50% of Toscana Promozione Turistica/Tuscany Region and 50% of the Chamber of Commerce of Florence. The governance and sharing of the organisation model is implemented through the synergy between public and private sectors, that is getting stronger. In 2016 Toscana Promozione Turistica took on the task of coordinating a parallel event within the BTO: Digital ecosystems, a laboratory for the development of digitalisation to promote Italy as a tourism destination. The stakeholders are Public Bodies, Italian and International companies, which take part in the event, together with the big players of digital tourism as well as the Social Networks.