Congress and Fair-Congress Venues Were the Weakest Segment of Italy's Meeting Industry in 2025

Italy's congress centres and fair-congress venues numbered 122 in 2025, just 2.3% of all venues. They hosted 8,235 meetings and events, also 2.3% of the total, but accounted for 3,318,476 participants, or 11.6%, and 6,642,790 attendee days, or 15.4%, so their events are far larger than average. This was nevertheless the segment that fell hardest in 2025: events were down 16.3%, participants 19.8%, event days 22.2% and attendee days 24.2%. Within it, the 75 congress centres saw events fall 18.5%, while the 47 fair-congress venues recorded declines of 30.1% in participants and 31.6% in attendee days. Geographically, the drop in attendee days at congress centres was concentrated in the North West, at 30.4%, and the Centre, at 34.5%, while for fair-congress venues it hit the North East at 20.9% and the South and Islands at 72.8%. These venues name rising competition and the difficulty of securing enough hotel rooms in advance at competitive rates as their main problems. Note the scope: only meeting activity is counted, not the exhibitions staged at the same fairgrounds.