Sicily has been awarded the 2009 BIT Award for being the best destination for Italian tourists.
Sicily was chosen in a poll carried out by the Italian Tourism Exchange (BIT) and the Mondadori publishing house in which the southern island received over 40,000 votes from operators in the tourism industry and readers of tourism-related magazines.
The resulted of the poll were announced Wednesday night at the inauguration of Expo BIT in Milan.
In accepting the award, Sicily's regional councillor for tourism, Titti Bufardeci, said that ''Sicily is a dream, a land rich in excellence, an enchanted place. It is our hope that tourism will become a locomotive for our island's socio-economic development and this recognition will push us to do more and do it better''.
''We are currently focusing our efforts on developing three sectors which can increase our region's share of the tourism market: business conventions, recreational port facilities and sports events,'' she added.
The opening night of Expo BIT also saw the southeast region of puglia receive an award for having the tourism portal: viaggiareinpuglia.it
