Metaverse, sustainability, digital nomadism: these are some of the new tourism trends that will be at the center of the 14th edition of BTO – Be Travel Onlife, the event of the Tuscany Region and the Florence Chamber of Commerce dedicated to the combination of innovation and tourism organized by Toscana Tourism Promotion, PromoFirenze and Fondazione Sistema Toscana. The appointment is at the Stazione Leopolda in Florence on Tuesday 29 and Wednesday 30 November.

Metatourism is the keyword of a program full of important contributions: 100 events including insights, workshops and futuristic speeches to learn about the new trends in technology applied to travel, destinations, professions, ways of travelling. If by 2026 a quarter of people will spend at least an hour a day in the Metaverse (Gartner estimate), BTO 2023 presents itself as a great preview: thanks to the futuristic creativity of La Jetée, the Stazione Leopolda will host a series of spectacular installations. A “talking” colonnade will introduce visitors by anticipating the thematic areas of the event thanks to augmented reality technology, while inside it will be possible to “virtually get to know” some of the main speakers: just frame the identification badge they will wear around their necks or respective “photographic” copies reproduced in full size on a wall, to listen to the presentation from their own voice.

Another novelty is the META-BTO created by Carraro LAB, an unprecedented experimentation of the phygital synergy between physical and virtual events: while the inaugural speech is held on stage, the virtual duplicate of the Leopolda appears on the big screen, with avatars and 3D environments interact with real speakers and attendees. A part of the virtual exhibition is dedicated to the guidelines of the European Commission, with quotes from the positions taken by Ursula Von Der Leyen and Commissioner Thierry Breton, aimed at stimulating a European approach to the Metaverse, which intends to be ethical, legal, safe, not monopolistic. A second 3D exhibition area presents the key concepts of the Tourist Metaverse, which stands as an immersive evolution to promote real travel. Another opportunity offered to BTO 2022 participants is to personally visit, in the form of an avatar, the exhibition in the Metaverse, accessing it in cross-device mode from PCs, Smartphones and VR viewers through a Qrcode/link that will be provided after the presentations. The experimentation of META BTO is an emblematic case history of the applications of the Metaverse to MICE tourism.

The search for sustainable solutions is, together with innovation, the other red thread of BTO 2022: it is no coincidence that the 14th edition bans plastic and focuses on alternative mobility. Thanks to an agreement with Publiacqua, two drinking water fountains will be available inside the Leopolda. Ecodesign principles were also adopted for the fittings, with low-impact materials and attention to disposal methods. Among the partners of the Bird and Ridemovi initiative, for discounts on the rental of scooters, bikes and e-bikes for the participants.

For this edition, the Chamber of Commerce of Florence, co-owner of the BTO brand together with the Tuscany Region, has involved the Italian chamber system and economic operators active in the territories through the promotion of BTO ON TOUR, an anticipation of the major themes of the initiative . The promotion was developed in three appointments in which the central theme of BTO2022 was presented: Metatourism. BTO ON TOUR took place in three stages: in Siena on 3 November in the complex of Santa Maria della Scala, in Padua on 15 November, as part of Digital tourism 2022 and, finally, in Rome at the headquarters of Unioncamere on November 16th.

Citizens of Twitter is distributed under License Creative Commons Attribution – Noncommercial – No Derivatives 4.0 International.