Held annually in Florence, Italy, the high-end boutique travel summit brings together the finest Italian hospitality providers with the world’s top English-speaking travel advisors
(FLORENCE, ITALY) July 15, 2020: DUCO Travel Summit will host its third annual DUCO Italy destination travel event in Florence, Italy from July 19 – 23 2021, postponed from its previous Spring 2020 date. The rescheduled event celebrates the rinascimento (rebirth) of travels in Italy and has been organized in compliance with measures issued by the Italian government and local Florentine authorities.
The third edition of DUCO Italy celebrates Il Rinascimento del Turismo (The Renaissance of tourism) with the presence of Italy’s most important hoteliers and key players from the high-end travel industry, mainly from the US and EU on smaller scale. The event happens at a unique time for the sector, supporting the bounce back of the high-quality travel business in Italy.
“DUCO Italy is the first fair of the high-end travel industry calendar since 2019. To hold DUCO Italy 2021 summit in Florence has a unique meaning, as it is like a Renaissance for the sector,” said Carolina Perez, Founder of DUCO Travel Summit.
Sponsored by Toscana Promozione, Tuscany’s regional tourism office and held in collaboration with Helvetia & Bristol Firenze, Four Seasons Hotel Firenze and The St. Regis & Westin Excelsior, Florence, Villa la Massa, DUCO Italy 2021 offers a platform to over 200 prestigious hotels, DMCs and special Italian experiences to engage with high-end travel advisors.
DUCO Italy is co-sponsored by ENIT, the Italian Government Tourist Board responsible for promoting tourism in Italy, Florence Convention Bureau and Pugliapromozione.
Pugliapromozine, the Apulian tourism board will be supporting Casa Puglia, a space dedicated to celebrating Italy’s beautifully famous Apulia region at The St Regis & The Westin Excelsior, Florence.
The day events at Four Seasons Hotel Firenze will be dedicated to Tuscany, honoring the region that welcomes DUCO with the sponsorship & support of Toscana Promozione.
For the third year Toscana Promozione Turistica, the Tuscan Agency for Tourism, is the main sponsor of the event. Leonardo Marras, Regional Minister for Tourism, underlines the importance of this appointment aimed at international buyers, noting “Tuscany is once again a key player in this sector, able to offer tourists an exclusive welcome. A great destination that manages to build dynamic proposals in line with the needs of luxury travelers. Supporting Duco is a great opportunity for our territory, which we have decided to seize together with the main operators of the sector, confirming the historic hospitality of the region that allows us to identify Tuscany among the most important destinations in the world.”
The City of Florence and the Destination Florence Convention & Visitors Bureau are also steadfast supporters of DUCO, working together in partnership to ensure Italy’s best destinations and experiences are showcased to those who bring the most qualified, upscale travel business to the country.
“The happening of DUCO Italy in Florence is a meaningful signal for the tourism recovery. The partnership between DUCO and Destination Florence Convention & Visitors Bureau today is stronger than ever before, this great event represents a real opportunity to promote the Best of the high-end local and Italian hospitality providers towards some of the world’s most qualified travel advisors; as the official partner of the City of Florence one of our main objective is to re-activate the target of top-spender travelers which has always been a core market for our destination,” notes Carlotta Ferrari, Director of Destination Florence Convention & Visitors Bureau.
Over the course of the four-day summit, the Best of Italy will gather at DUCO with sophisticated brands and leading independent properties meeting with some of the world’s top English-speaking travel advisors who focus on Italy. Attendees will dive deep into the destination, starting at enriching fifteen-minute daytime appointments with DUCO Italy’s preferred participants and continuing through engaging nighttime events.
The theme, ‘DUCO Appetito’, celebrates the country’s passion for its iconic food and brings amongst other highlights, an exciting gastronomic experience with a Michelin-Starred dinner. The menu includes an Antipasto, Primo by Nicola Laera from La Perla in Corvara, Dolomites; Secondo by chef Andrea Migliaccio from Capri Palace Jumeirah in Annacapri, Campagna; and Dolce by chef Enrico Bartolini from Hotel L’Andana, in Tuscany.
Additionally, DUCO 2021 will also feature the annual Lemon Awards which are designed to celebrate Italy’s inherent creativity and charm. Each hotelier has shared a video or photos, created and produced by members of their team, with a focus on this year’s theme, Appetito! All videos and photos are considered for the “Lemonees” short list and showcased on social media and via DUCO’s website. Winners of the most voted videos and photos will be presented with a Lemon Award during DUCO’s Opening Ceremony on Monday, July 19, 2021.
DUCO Italy will also proudly launch its first Give Back project in benefit of Food For Soul, a non-profit organization founded by Chef Massimo Bottura and Lara Gilmore to empower communities to fight food waste through social inclusion. Food for Soul takes an alternative approach to build community spaces based on three core principles: Quality of Ideas, Power of Beauty, and Value of Hospitality. DUCO believes that these principles match perfectly with the travel community and aims to encourage everyone inspired by the summit to rethink and act responsibly during their own travels and journey in life. DUCO Italy’s participants have already donated near USD $10,000 and the campaign has assured that over 1,582 kg of food have not been wasted.
DUCO Italy will also pay a tribute to an unforgettable leader of the Italian travel community, with the first annual Patrizio Cippolini Award Italian Hotelier of the Year. DUCO’s friend and hotelier Patrizio Cipollini, who for 45 years was a reference in the hospitality world, passed in 2019. The annual prize honors his legacy and represents the excellence of Italian hospitality, as inspired by Patrizio’s elegance and passion. Travel advisors from previous editions of DUCO Italy have cast their votes and the winners will be announced during the DUCO Michelin Starred dinner at Salone dei Cinquecento.
DUCO is a ground-breaking initiative and the first travel summit to focus on one single destination, highlighting the excellence of the Italian hospitality to the world’s most important buyers. With DUCO, Italy is on the calendar of the world’s finest travel events with an innovative approach to holding meetings every day in a different venue.
Beyond the annual event in Florence, DUCO Italy is a channel for the year-round promotion of Italy.
At the beginning of 2020, when the world was forced to take a pause, DUCO strived to create different ways to keep the essential bond alive and continue to connect the world to Italy with an inspirational and educational approach. The team created DUCO Parla!, an 18-week webinar series bringing hospitality friends together, crisscrossing the peninsula and uncovering the best of Italy, while connecting over 180 Italian hoteliers to share their love for their land. DUCO Galleria was inaugurated in 2021 with an online showcase that offers insights into DUCO’s hotels, as well as secrets for every region, delightful dishes, and other creative content at your fingertips. In spring 2021, DUCO Virtuale, the online one-to-one meeting program was held for the first time and has tapped into the network for a much-anticipated live event.
Thanks to its successful formula and commitment to promote the Best of Italian Hospitality continuously and consistently, DUCO Italy is officially confirmed to future 2022 and 2023 editions in Florence.
Created by the Brazilian-Italian entrepreneur and event specialist Carolina Perez, DUCO was designed to foster the networking between top Italian hospitality providers and the best travel advisors and from key markets such as North America, UK and Australia. Over the past four years, DUCO Italy has continuously gained notoriety thanks to the show’s strength in connecting an elite group of leading travel advisors and opinion makers, primarily from English-speaking markets, with top Italian hoteliers and service providers.
Carolina Perez spent 16 years working in the family business, Teresa Perez Tours, in Sao Paulo Brazil. In 2009, she founded Travelweek Sao Paulo, an international travel show acquired by ILTM Reed Exhibitions in 2013. After a sabbatical period, she was ready to pursue a new dream: to launch DUCO in Italy, the land of her ancestors. Carolina’s passion for this country is the soul of DUCO. As the company’s founder, she is proud and honored to be leading this initiative.
For more information, go to www.ducotravelsummit.com or connect on Instagram and Facebook.
About DUCO Travel Summit
Founded in 2016 by Carolina Perez, DUCO Travel Summit is a destination-oriented initiative, the first travel summit of its kind to focus on one single destination and a channel for the promotion of the destination through marketing actions and digital platforms. DUCO Travel Summit organizes DUCO Italy, an annual event held in Florence and the recently launched DUCO France, with its first edition due to be held in October 2021.
The DUCO concept is a result of the passion of the company’s founder, Carolina Perez, who is of Italian heritage and grew up in Brazil. After 16 years leading the family business, Teresa Perez Tours in Sao Paulo, Carolina created and founded Travelweek Sao Paulo, which was acquired by ILTM Reed Exhibitions in 2013 and rebranded as ILTM Latin America.
To learn more about DUCO Travel Summit including DUCO Italy and DUCO France, please visit www.ducotravelsummit.com and follow us on Instagram and Facebook.
