For the Italian tourism sector, the launch of the Italian Observatory on Destination Wedding Tourism – organised by JFC and promoted by ‘ANUSCA’ and ‘Buy Wedding in Italy’ – marks an important milestone and heralds a new phase for this rapidly growing tourism sector. The wedding tourism sector will thus have access to highly specialised information and insights on all the phenomenological, economic, trend-related and sociological factors and elements that influence the sector at both national and international levels.

Unlike the various monitoring systems and observatories already in operation in other market segments and run by other organisations, the methodology adopted here is not limited to pure statistical analysis, but involves a series of research phases carried out at different times of the year, focusing on phenomenological, economic and sociological factors of significant interest.

It analyses the wedding tourism product and assesses its potential for growth in the global market; it monitors the market to continuously evaluate the appeal and market penetration of individual destinations’ offerings, their market value and future prospects; highlights the most interesting new developments, venues and destinations investing in this segment; proposes the intersection between market and product, indicating potential investments in products and services; maintains regular and direct contact with the sector’s key stakeholders; provides insights into annual trends based on statistical data derived from direct engagement with operators (integrated direct data collection system); in addition to maintaining ‘contact’ with operators in the hospitality sector, it conducts analysis across all areas of interest to the wedding segment: from catering to private and public venues, from wedding favours to entertainment, and from wedding dresses to car hire.