BIT 2027 Borsa Internazionale del Turismo: B2B merch for tour operators, agencies, destinations and hotel chains

Merchandising for exhibitors and buyers at BIT 2027

Dates

9 – 11 February 2027 (three trade days; final day open to the consumer public)

Venue

Fiera Milano Rho, Strada Statale Sempione 28, 20017 Rho (MI), Italy

Halls

Hall 3 (Italy), Hall 4 (MICE & Be Tech), Hall 5 (Villages and international destinations), Hall 6 (Luxury), Hall 7 (International Leisure), Hall 9 (Tourism accessories and services). Hospitality Lounge in Hall 4 for the hosted buyer programme.

Organiser

Fiera Milano S.p.A., with the endorsement of ENIT (Italian National Tourism Agency), the Ministry of Tourism, Regione Lombardia, and with the partnership of the trade associations of the sector (ASTOI Confindustria Viaggi, Assoviaggi Confesercenti, Federturismo Confindustria, Confindustria Alberghi).

BIT — Borsa Internazionale del Turismo — is the Italian trade fair of reference for the tourism sector, hosted at Fiera Milano Rho since 1980 and structured into three days dedicated to the trade public (operators, agencies, specialised press) followed by one day open to the consumer public. Each year the event brings together thousands of exhibitors from Italy and from more than ninety foreign countries: incoming and outbound tour operators, travel agencies, distribution networks, hotel chains, independent accommodations, air and rail carriers, cruise lines, regional and national tourism boards, destination consortia, international destinations, MICE bureaus, hospitality service providers, hospitality technology vendors. The hosted buyer programme brings to Rho selected buyers from across Europe, the Mediterranean, the Gulf, Asia and the Americas, with packed agendas of one-to-one meetings, educationals and product workshops across the three trade days.

For tour operators, agencies, destinations, hotel chains, carriers and buyers working at BIT, the merchandising programme has to be built with the calendar of the fair firmly in mind: international buyer welcome bags need to be ready before the opening of the one-to-one meeting agenda, tourism catalogues need to be delivered ahead of the open public days to avoid the Saturday bottleneck, and press kits need to align with the cadence of the trade titles that publish their next issues in the months of travel planning (spring, summer, long weekends, low season). Corp-Merch.IT works from its Milan operational hub with the Italian manufacturing districts that best match the positioning of the tourism sector: Como for textiles (shoppers in cotton, foulards), Vigevano for small leather goods (passport holders, business card holders, pen cases), Meda and Scandicci for structured leather goods (briefcases, travel organisers, messenger bags), Maniago for small metalwork (multi-tools, travel bottle openers, steel keyrings), Caltagirone for ceramics (espresso cups, bowls, coasters with destination graphics), Murano for art glass (limited editions for profiled buyers), Fabriano and Padova for technical paper (catalogues, guides, agenda booklets, representative material). Tourism catalogues and representative material are printed on FSC-certified paper with low-impact methods, and on request we add stitched binding, signature, ISBN coding and EAN barcode for commercial leaflets.

Invoicing for Italian VAT-registered buyers goes through the Sistema di Interscambio (SdI) of the Italian Revenue Agency in EUR with 22% VAT, delivered to the Codice Destinatario or to the PEC communicated by the buyer. For editorial tourism catalogues the reduced 10% VAT applies, for books and tourist guides 5%, in line with current Italian VAT rules. Reverse charge for intra-EU buyers registered with VIES, split payment for public bodies, Codice Destinatario or PEC for electronic invoice delivery. For clients in scope of CSRD reporting (D.Lgs. 125/2024, transposing Directive (EU) 2022/2464) we provide a sustainability sheet per order with Scope 3 CO₂e estimates under the GHG Protocol Corporate Value Chain on the domestic legs and on the provenances from the named districts, aligned with ESRS E1, E5 and S2.

Fair calendar and loading windows at the Rho complex

BIT opens the European tourism trade-fair season and sits between the Ferienmesse in Vienna (January) and ITB Berlin (March). The three trade days at BIT are dense: the Sunday opening sees the stand builders race, Monday and Tuesday run the one-to-one meetings between buyers and exhibitors, Wednesday is the open public day. Direct deliveries to the Rho complex must be coordinated with the loading windows published by Fiera Milano and with the freight forwarder named by the exhibitor: the complex is not an open address for parcels, and every delivery must be tied to a delivery note signed by the exhibitor and to a nominal loading pass issued by the organisation. February traffic on the A4 Milan-Turin, A8 Milan-Lakes and A1 Milan-Bologna motorways conditions the delivery windows, and it is often worth pairing the venue delivery with a buffer at a hotel in the Fiera area or at a warehouse near Rho or northern Milan.

Production and logistics towards Fiera Milano Rho

Confirm artwork, edition size, numbering and on-site recipient before launching production. Stand number, hall and dock-in window must be verified against the latest Exhibitor Manual issued by Fiera Milano and against the loading pass calendar of the Rho complex. The complex is organised on gated vehicle access subject to nominal passes during the set-up phase, so loading windows must be cross-checked with the courier passes. For tourism catalogues and high-run editorial material specific packing rules apply (packing in cardboard crates with labelling per ISBN or EAN code, bilingual Italian/English packing list addressed to the tour operator).

For an Italian programme routed via Milan, shipments are consolidated and dispatched to the exhibitor stand, the Fiera-area hotel or the freight forwarder warehouse over 24–48 hours via BRT, SDA, GLS or DHL Express Italia, with appointment for venues requiring phone notice. For programmes above 1,000 pieces we propose appointment delivery with phone notice and, on request, on-site set-up by our staff at the exhibitor stand. For material requiring climate-controlled conditions (fine leathers, Murano art glass, fine-art prints, numbered catalogues) we coordinate climate-controlled transport with specialised partners. For the tourism catalogues to be distributed on the open public days we prepare tamper-evident packaging with a bilingual packing list addressed to the tour operator, so that copies can be distributed outside the fair (in bookshops, in agencies, at product educationals) too.

For international buyers hosted under the hosted buyer programme we can organise the welcome bag delivery directly to the Fiera-area hotel or to a central Milan hotel the day before the opening of the agendas, in coordination with the hostess agency. For the speakers of educationals and workshops we can deliver the representative kit to the hotel the day before the session, with signed receipt from the recipient and bilingual packing list.

Frequently asked questions