Developed in partnership with the City of Florence, the aim is to promote Florence and its surroundings as ideal destination for quality and luxury leisure tourism, guiding clients in the selection of the best solutions and exclusive experiences from accommodation to all the other related services.
In a few words
For over 20 years we have been the official association for promoting Florence as a destination. Our mission is to attract top events, conferences, international weddings and quality tourism. We are a non-profit company with over 300 highly specialized partner companies operating in the local tourism sector.
We connect businesses with local institutions and international customers, as a facilitator in the area and the primarygateway to Florence as a destination. We are official partners of the City of Florencewhere teamwork between the public and private sectors has always been a majorbenefit for promoting the city as a destination for events. Our core business is in leisure tourism, MICE (meetings, incentives, conferences, events) and destination weddings.
Just a few more data
In 1995 we began as the Florence Convention Bureau, a non-profit consortium company with a clear mission for MICE tourism. Our majority shareholder was Firenze Fiera Congress & Exhibition Center, a publicly-owned company that held over 70% of the share capital.
At the end of 2009, the Province of Florence, which at the time had full ownership of the administrative functions in the field of tourism, acquired the absolute majority of the capital. The new leadership has ensured that teamwork between the public and private sectors was a major benefit for promoting the city as a destination for events.
At the end of 2013, the Province of Florence decided to withdraw from the corporate structure following a national reform that changed its role. Since then, our strategy has been to involve an increasing number of local operators who have chosen to invest in our existing company by acquiring the province’s shares. Between 2011 and 2014 the increase in private shareholders was over 36% with 141 partners in total.
In 2015 we were awarded the contract presented by the City of Florence for the promotion of Florence as a destination, becoming official city partners.
We therefore laid the foundations for our future, starting to work in leisure tourism and becoming, as a result, the Florence Convention and Visitors Bureau.
Our status as official partners with the City means we have had the opportunity to expand our membership and open up to new markets, particularly destination weddings. Consequently, we launched the Tuscany for Weddings division, in partnership with Toscana Promozione Turistica.
On January 18, 2017 we launched Destination Florence, a new division dedicated to quality leisure tourism. This company growth led to a new name: Destination Florence Convention and Visitors Bureau.
The process of privatizing the company and the official partnership with the City of Florence were two fundamental steps for our growth. By 2018, after just four years, the number of partners had doubled to over 300.
In 2019 we were confirmed for the second time as the lead promotors of Florence as a destination for quality tourism, conventions and destination weddings by the City of Florence. Our partnership lasts three years with a two-year renewal,maintaining our role for the next 5 years.
There are two main developments from this partnership. The first is that we were selected as the sole company to carry out initiatives to enhance conference tourism and to de-seasonalize and de-localize flows, and therefore expand quality tourism,following an agreement signed in December 2018 between the City of Florence, Metropolitan City, Chamber of Commerceand the University of Florence. The second innovation is that our role will be to promote not only Florence but also the metropolitan area that could be used to host corporate events.
We have also acquired approval from the Federalberghi, Confesercenti and Confindustria tourism trade associations.
Today, with the support of over 300 partners, we drive for prosperity across the whole of Tuscany through quality events and tourism.
Email c.gheri@conventionbureau.it
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