International Tourism Forum: third edition of the Italian event to be held in Milan on January 23–24

The Palazzo del Ghiaccio in Milan will host, on January 23 and 24, the third edition of the Italian International Tourism Forum, an event promoted by the Ministry of Tourism in collaboration with ENIT, the National Tourism Board. For two days, institutions, operators, experts, and stakeholders will discuss how to make tourism more sustainable, competitive, and better distributed across the territory.

At the center of the debate at this third edition will be the theme of undertourism and the enhancement of lesser-known territories, that is, how to promote and strengthen the attractiveness of villages, inland areas, mountains, and lesser-known destinations for a more balanced, sustainable, and widespread development of Italian tourism. The goal for the tourism of the future is to ease the pressure on the most crowded destinations and create new economic opportunities.

For this reason, topics such as deseasonalization, flow management, innovation, and the promotion of Italy will also be discussed in view of the major challenges of the coming years, starting with the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics.

A dense and content-rich program

After the institutional greetings, the Forum will immediately get to the heart of the discussion with the programmatic speech by the Minister of Tourism, Daniela Garnero Santanchè, who will outline the Government’s vision for the tourism industry over the next ten years, focusing on innovation, competitiveness, and the rebalancing of tourist flows.

Next, the panel dedicated to “Milan Cortina 2026 – The distributed games” – will address the Winter Olympics as a model of decentralization capable of spreading tourist flows across multiple territories. Among the participants in the discussion will be Andrea Abodi, Minister for Sport and Youth, Bernabò Bocca, President of Federalberghi, and Ivana Jelinic, Chief Executive Officer of ENIT.

Minister Santanchè will then return to the topic of mountain tourism, with a focus on enhancing the Winter Olympics as a lever for sustainable and deseasonalized development, capable of making the mountains attractive all year round.

There will also be space for data: Alessandra Ghisleri, Director of Euromedia Research, will present a survey on small towns to identify the needs of the tourism supply chain on which the Government can intervene. This will be followed by the testimonies of mayors from tourist-oriented locations, who will bring concrete examples of best practices.

The first day will close with the speech of Raffaele Fitto, Executive Vice-President of the European Commission and Commissioner for Cohesion and Reforms, who will examine the impact of major European and international projects on Italy’s small towns.

Second day: focus on territories and the supply chain

Friday will be dedicated to the growth of lesser-known areas: regional tourism councillors will describe strategies for the development of small towns. This will be followed by a panel on the future vision of the tourism supply chain, with contributions from business associations and a speech by Emanuele Orsini, President of Confindustria.

Another key moment will be dedicated to building a national strategy for DOP tourism, with events designed to create new destinations linked to food and wine. Francesco Lollobrigida, Minister of Agriculture, Food Sovereignty and Forests, will speak.

Great attention will also be paid to the theme of undertourism, the real challenge for the sector: bringing more visitors to inland areas, villages, and smaller islands in order to enhance the potential of Italy’s small towns. Minister Santanchè will return to this topic as well.

The event will conclude with the signing of the Amalfi Pact: the Minister of the Interior, Matteo Piantedosi, together with Minister Santanchè and the mayors who are signatories, will sign the inter-institutional protocol aimed at strengthening multilevel coordination in the management, sustainability, and security of tourist flows and in the protection of the most exposed territories.