Increasing the online presence of businesses, promoting the .it domain name as an online identity and a symbol of Made in Italy: these are the primary goals of the Registro .it, the registry for Italian Internet domain names (.it), managed by the Institute of Informatics and Telematics of the CNR (CNR-IIT) in Pisa. For the first time, the Registro .it will be present in Bari with its own booth at BTM (Business Tourism Management) Italia 2025, from February 26 to 28.
At BTM, on February 26, the Registro .it is also organizing a workshop titled “Your journey starts with .it. Digital tourism in Italy: topics, numbers, and trends” which will take place in the Main Hall from 16:45 to 17:45. The event will discuss how a journey begins online, before setting off, and will explore “digital tourism” and the digital tools that support the entire trip organization process, from planning to booking, as well as discussing the growth opportunities the Internet offers to all Italian businesses. On this occasion, the Registro .it will also present exclusive data from its "Tourism in the Net Observatory" (TINe), regarding the spread of various tourism-related sectors on the Internet and their geographical distribution.
Maurizio Martinelli, head of the Systems and Technological Development Unit at Registro .it, will open the panel with a presentation on the Registry and data related to the online presence of Italian businesses operating in the tourism sector in Italy. Joining him on stage will be Edoardo Colombo and Rodolfo Baggio, both members of the BTM Scientific Committee and experts in AI and digital data. Colombo is a specialist in the European Capitals of Smart Tourism Evaluation Committee on the topic of Digitalization and President of Turismi AI, while Baggio is a Bocconi professor and expert in Data Strategies. During the event, the Registrars of Registro .it will take the stage to share their experience and their strategic role in the digital growth of businesses and professionals.
Since 1987, the Registro .it has been the Italian authority overseeing the registration of new domain names with the .it extension: effectively, the "license plate" of Italy on the internet. The main direct partners of the Registry for .it domain registration are the Registrars, companies specialized in managing domain procedures and providing internet services (connectivity, email, hosting, etc.). The approximately 1,100 Registrars, mostly Italian but also international, have active contracts with the Registry and serve as technical intermediaries between the Registry and the Registrants (the final users who are assigned a .it domain name). Some Registrars will be present at the Registry’s booth at BTM to engage with businesses and freelancers attending the fair about the opportunities the internet offers to their businesses.
For years, the Registro .it, through dedicated communication, has aimed to enhance the .it domain name and encourage its use by small, medium, and micro businesses, a fundamental part of Italy’s production process, the European country with the highest number of SMEs (with a total of 1,021,618 units), equivalent to 22.5% of Italian businesses. These businesses generate 85.1% of the national added value, employ 74.7% of the workforce (13.1 million people), and 96.0% of employees (11.5 million), as shown by ISTAT’s 2023 report.
A .it domain helps companies establish a clear and authoritative presence online and forms the foundational element of their strategic positioning on the web. A website guarantees full control over one’s digital identity, thus offering the company the opportunity to secure a unique and recognizable address, which - in a crowded digital landscape - sets it apart from sites with generic domains.
The .it domain becomes a guarantee for the company and a profitable choice: it ensures reliability, guarantees the protection of the company, gives authenticity to the brand, and becomes a symbol of quality and Made in Italy. It highlights the connection with the territory and immediately provides brand recognition in both the Italian and international context. This provides a competitive advantage for the brand, immediately identifying the services offered as deeply linked to Italian culture, history, and tradition, while also asserting characteristics of exclusivity and craftsmanship that the international market easily recognizes, especially in tourism, fashion, design, and many other sectors.
The Registro .it has activated an observatory on .it websites classified in the tourism sector, known as the TINe (Tourism in the Net Observatory), since 2017. Its purpose is to analyze the spread of various tourism-related sectors on the internet and their geographical distribution.
There are almost 160,000 .it websites classified in the tourism sector to date. Among the selected categories (accommodation, restaurants, entertainment, tour operators, etc.), 54% of the total falls under the "accommodation" category, amounting to 86,719 dedicated websites. Of these, 60% are from Puglia (4,530 websites), while 3,702 Puglian companies are involved in the accommodation sector.
The analysis conducted by the Observatory shows that the number of .it websites related to the tourism sector has significantly increased since 2017, when data collection began. At that time, the Observatory recorded a total of 22,992 .it websites in the sector, whereas today, the number of tourism-related websites has grown to 159,843.
BTM will be an important opportunity to get to know the Registro .it and understand how the web represents a key resource for tourists to discover services, plan and book, and to grasp the potential of the Internet and the .it domain. We look forward to seeing you in large numbers, also to discover together all the data from the Italian Registry’s Tourism Observatory, of which we have only provided a small preview.