ENIT presents the latest data on Italy’s MICE sector at IMEX in Frankfurt

• In 2024, some 850,000 foreign visitors travelled to Italy for trade fairs and conferences, generating tourist expenditure of €800 million and 2,750,000 overnight stays
• The main source markets were Germany, France, the UK, Spain and the USA

Rome/Frankfurt, 20 May 2025. The MICE (Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and Exhibitions) segment is one of the most dynamic and high value-added components within the globalised contemporary tourism environment. For this reason, industry professionals are meeting at IMEX in Frankfurt, the world's leading trade fair for the MICE sector in Europe and a strategic platform for institutions, companies and international buyers. The IMEX 2025 trade fair, scheduled to run until 22 May, is an important opportunity to analyse emerging trends in business tourism and the strategies deployed by leading countries, including Italy, to harness this key economic resource.

ENIT (participating with its own stand hosting 78 co-exhibitors including 10 regions/institutions and their companies) is presenting the latest trends in the sector. In 2024, Italy recorded a significant increase, compared to the previous year, in international tourism relating to professional events: 340,000 foreign travellers came to Italy to attend conferences (up by +22.7%), while 500,000 came for trade fairs, an increase of 18.3% compared to 2023. Overnight stays for conferences also increased by +14.5% (1,152,000) and those for trade fairs by +18.4% (1,594,000). Spending on tourism followed the same positive trend, with conference travel reaching 270 million euros (+20% compared to the previous year), while spending on visiting trade fairs increased even more, up +27.7%, at 530 million euros.

“MICE is a strategic segment for our country. We are satisfied with the growth recorded, indicating that Italy is capable of responding to a variety of tourist demands. Trade fairs and conferences bring significant related activities, a tourist expenditure of 800 million euros and more than 800 thousand incoming foreign travellers. This is a vital contribution to the entire national system with a strong economic impact, not to mention the benefit of return tourism”, comments Ivana Jelinic, CEO of ENIT.

“It is a pleasure to have you here at the trade fair in Frankfurt and personally testify to the ability of Italian institutions to work closely with the private sector to stimulate incoming tourist flows, economic growth and prosperity in our country, in the spirit of growth diplomacy”, says Massimo Darchini, Italian Consul General in Frankfurt.

In MICE tourism overall, Germany remains the number one source market, for both number of travellers and overnights stays, accounting for 13% of the total, followed by France (10.3% of travellers and 6.7% of nights), the United Kingdom (7.9% of travellers and 8.2% of nights), Spain (7.7% of travellers and 7.2% nights) and the United States (5.7% of travellers and 8% of nights). In terms of revenue, the USA is in first place (14.5% of the total), followed by Germany (10.6%). Completing the top 5, France, the UK, Japan and Spain are neck and neck.

IMEX in Frankfurt is therefore an important event for Italy, also due to the strategic importance of the German market to Italian tourism, with German visitors spending almost 9 billion euros (+8%) in Italy in 2024. In the period from May 2024 to April 2025 alone, some 31.3 million German tourists travelled abroad, spending at least one night in a foreign country. Italy is the second European destination of choice for these travellers, welcoming 8.3% of total flows during this period, marking a 10% growth on 2023 . For the current year, total arrivals in Italy from Germany are expected to grow by +4.3%, with leisure travel predominating, accounting for 41.6% of the total, and business travel accounting for 19.1%.