BIT 2015 delivers a sparkling and colorful tourism spectacle

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Written by Linda Hohnholz

Italy’s premier travel industry trade show, BIT, ran this past weekend at the new Milan Fairgrounds in the suburb of Rho. The fairgrounds is the venue for the upcoming 2015 World’s Fair.

Italy’s premier travel industry trade show, BIT, ran this past weekend at the new Milan Fairgrounds in the suburb of Rho. The fairgrounds is the venue for the upcoming 2015 World’s Fair. BIT took place in two giant glass buildings – one for Italian destinations and the other for lands abroad. “BIT 2015 is a great showcase to promote the beauty and quality of Lombardy. BIT 2015 is The Expo BIT, an opportunity to create a direct link between tour operators and tourists from all over the world,” said Mauro Parolini, council member for the Lombardy Tourism and Service Industry.

The international building was ablaze in color, where kiosks from a large variety of countries offered free champagne, tasty cheeses, and local dishes. Several exhibitors brought costumed models, giving the feel of an exotic adventure. While we’re quite certain people don’t really dress every day as knights in shining armor in Eastern Europe, the fantasy makes for a very pleasing spectacle.

Between the two giant glass “pavilions” (as the buildings were called) stood a trailer which served to promote the upcoming World’s Fair (Expo 2015). It had several windows where customers could pre-purchase their tickets to the event. Unfortunately, this is Italy, and it is not a customer-oriented country. The social system is set up to protect the employee, not the customer. I saw employees inside the trailer, and they looked very happy, chatting with each other in a corner of the mobile shop; however, they were not manning their windows, nor interested in coming to the windows to provide customer service. This was also the pattern, rather than the exception, at the kiosks inside the pavilion. The representatives charged to man the booths were often too engaged in their own chats to bother with customers. We walked up to the Cuba kiosk, where two Italian reps had their backs turned to the customers, and simply refused to turn around and do the job they were hired to do. I often felt an air horn was needed in order to effect a productive visit.

We encountered a man in a wheelchair who was trying to win a free trip to the Balkans. He had little muscle coordination, but played the game of skill, anyway. To have a chance at the free trip, one had to throw a red rubber ball into a small hole in an exhibit stand, three times in a row, without missing. The handicapped man didn’t even come close. After losing the game, he complained, “There’s absolutely nothing here friendly to disabled people.”

He may have cottoned on to something. There were dozens of parking spots immediately outside the pavilions, but they were reserved for politicians and big wigs, not for people who actually needed them. Handicap people had to park some five blocks away from the entrance, then make their way over uneven surfaces to the south gate. “Welcome to Italy, land of nepotism and customer-hostile service,” said my Italian-born hubby.

After finally reaching the south gate, handicapped people could get their parking ticketed validated at the registration stall marked “Disabled,” however, no one was manning that stall. There were three employees having a wonderful conversation nearby, but none felt the need to man the disabled stall when a customer was waiting there.

Entry into BIT was somewhat confusing. The premier visitor organization forgot to put up signs telling visitors where the entrance was. After getting tickets to the event, there were no signs telling people the event was actually held in two distant buildings. The fairgrounds is a large venue, and visitors can easily get lost without signage.

We hope that by the time Expo 2015 opens in May, they will have spent some time making signage, and run trials to find out if a visitor who has never been to the venue can easily discover how to park, make his way to the entrance, and successfully reach the exhibits. We also hope that the event can be handicap friendly, but suspect Expo 2015, the fair promoting food production, has a long row to hoe before achieving that goal.

About the author

Avatar of Linda Hohnholz

Linda Hohnholz

Editor in chief for eTurboNews based in the eTN HQ.

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