Human Company expects +40% revenues in 2022. As the leading Italian-capital company in the open air segment it predicts a record year, with a summer season posting higher performances than pre-Covid levels.

A highly positive year

To date, Human Company - which operates nine open-air properties in Italy and one in Luxembourg - expects to close 2022 with revenues of €123 million, up 40% from 2021 and 11% from 2019, and an EBITDA of €32 million, up 33% from 2021 and 3% from 2019. Attendance has also returned to pre-Covid levels, with slightly more than four million guests in attendance.

Best season attendances for Garda and Tuscany

The properties with the best season attendance embrace the entire Human Company offer. From the hu Altomincio Village, a holiday village a few kilometres from Lake Garda, with an occupancy rate of 89.73% between June and August. This is followed by the city leader hu Firenze Camping in Town with an occupancy rate of 88.08% and the hu Park Albatros Village, on the Etruscan Coast, with 87.33% of occupancy.

Italian, Dutch and German visitors top the rankings

In terms of guest origins, the villages of tha Human Company Group have a significant presence of Italians, who outnumber the Dutch (25%) and Germans (15%). Domestic arrivals stood at 33% at the Group's three Camping in Towns in Florence, Rome, and Venice, followed by German (17%) and French (8%) visitors.

“We can celebrate our 40th birthday with great enthusiasm thanks to these extraordinary numbers that allow us to look positively towards the future and continue investing in the development of our ambitious projects in Italy,” said Luca Belenghi, CEO of Human Company.

W Rome has changed hands, with a new ownership for the W Rome, the first Italian property of the Marriott lifestyle-luxury brand. The joint venture between the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (Cpp Investments) and the British hotel management company Hamilton - Pyramid Europe has in fact acquired the hotel from the previous owners (King Street Capital Management and Omnam Investment Group) for a total of some €172 million. 

“We are in a position to exploit the Eternal City's appeal”

The property, which reopened last April after a complete restyling, comprises 162 rooms, as well as a rooftop bar, a restaurant, a lounge, various other F&B venues, a gym and meeting spaces. "Rome has always been a top leisure and business destination," says Andrea Orlandi, managing director, head of real estate Europe at Cpp Investments. "The acquisition of W Rome therefore puts our joint venture with Hamilton - Pyramid Europe in the best position to exploit the Eternal City's appeal as a global tourist destination.

The joint venture is acquiring hotels in European cities and resort

Established earlier this year, the British-Canadian joint venture is focused on acquiring hotels operating in major European cities and select resort destinations. Last August Cpp Investments had announced a €475 million commitment to the same joint venture. The investment for W Rome is part of that endowment.

Eugenio Gallina, a hospitality entrepreneur from Brescia, has launched a new business venture called Ludwig House. The brand was founded in 2022 to enhance the great heritage and untapped potential of Italy’s villas.

In fact there are over 8,000 private historic houses open to the public in Italy, with more than one per municipality (Source: Adsi, Association of Italian Historic Houses). Eugenio Gallina has chosen an unconventional approach for Ludwig House, blending luxury with the unexpected, and hidden details.  

Exclusive locations with international appeal

"Luxury is an invention: it comes from the Latin meaning finding and randomly bumping into something we recognise but didn't know about,"says Eugenio Gallina. Ludwig House is an ambitious project for the acquisition of historic properties in exclusive and appealing locations, snd the Ludwig House nestled in the hills of Valpolicella was the company's first direct management in spring 2022. The property is owned by Hotel Cristallo srl, a subsidiary of MaMi srl, a holding company for tourism and hospitality investments founded in 2017 with the goal of researching and supporting long-term investments.

Paying homage to the King of Bavaria

The name Ludwig House pays homage to both the first owner to entrust his villa to the new formula, as well as to King Ludwig of Bavaria. His Neuschwanstein Castle in Bavaria launched an aesthetic revolution and is what inspired Eugenio Gallina to found his group. At present the company is looking at properties in Tuscany, Franciacorta, the Northern lake district, Rome, the Amalfi coast, and the Val di Noto.

Planning and sustainability. The post-Covid recovery sees tourism in Italy and around the world facing the same old challenges. But today they need new answers for new times that, most importantly, reply to the needs of destinations and markets. 

Starting with the institutions which “can no longer reason with a horizon of five to six years at most," emphasised Giorgio Palmucci, former councillor of the Italian Ministry of Tourism, at the 8th edition of Travel Hashtag. The event masterminded by Nicola Romanelli was held a few days ago in Borgo Egnazia in Puglia, and we had the pleasure of listening to many interesting insights into the thousand and one tourism sectors of today and tomorrow...

An industry as articulated and complex as travel cannot disregard adequate market segmentation: "We always talk about tourism, when instead we should be saying tourisms," said Rocco Forte Hotels’ group director operations Antonello De Medici. "Anyone investing in luxury as we do has to consider a destination’s entire ecosystem of services. And this means at least a ten-year perspective.”

Then there is the high-end product which has the potential to create alternative destinations, resolving, among other things, the critical issue of over-tourism which, up to 2019 was a thorn in the side of quite a few Italian destinations. “The high-end customer wants experiences, experiences, experiences,” said Max Zanardi, the Marzocco Group’s CEO. Quite true, agreed host Emanuele Manfroi, general manager of the San Domenico Hotels group which includes Borgo Egnazia. Provided “the high-end product is truly sustainable for the local community. Only in this way can the luxury investment activate a virtuous circle that can make everything around it grow.”

Massimiliano Sarti
Journalist

After two difficult years Starhotels is back with an over €200 million turnover thanks to a record September. The Florentine group is preparing to close 2022 with total revenues of €228 million. A result not only much higher than the 75 million recorded in 2021, but also above the pre-Covid 2019 year, when the Tuscan group posted €217 million.

September rates grew by 41%

Driving the company's performance was the general recovery of the sector, in turn accelerated by a September that the president and CEO of Starhotels, Elisabetta Fabri, called a record month in the history of the company. Compared to the same period in 2019, the group's hotels saw their average rates (ADR) grow by 41%.

Waiting for the return of Asia Pacific markets

In the wake of this trend the company expects to continue on the growth path next year, with an estimated increase in turnover between 18% and 25%, net of external events that could negatively affect the sector. The drive towards further increases should be enhanced by the return of markets still impacted by the pandemic, such as the Asia Pacific.

2002 has been an excellent year for Going. The MSC tour operator is getting ready to close 2022 with double the turnover of pre-Covid 2019.

"We have not yet closed the financial statements, but I can say that we are talking about a double-digit turnover,” says Going’s chief commercial & operations officer Maurizio Casabianca.

 

Preparing to launch Going2Italy

On the strength of these results, Going's expansion strategies are to continue, “in line with our initial business plan”. Starting with the launch of Going2Italy, headed by Roberto Pannozzo who is currently building his team. The focus is on the North American and Northern European markets, as well as on South America and the Far East, with the product launch scheduled for March-April, and the first bookings for next summer

“Tours from New York are already on sale”

The Going4Cruise cruises combine the cruise product with pre and post-ship itineraries.

“We started in Venice this summer with a product designed especially for the international market, to which we gradually added Athens and the USA. Tours from New York are already on sale, as well as from Doha and Dubai in the Middle East, and from Cairo in Egypt.

The group’s traditional tour operator, which this summer posted excellent results in Turkey, Jordan and North America, is now preparing to return to Thailand, Japan and sub-equatorial Africa.

Ivana Jelinic will most likely be the next managing director of Enit, the Italian national tourist board.

While waiting for the decree that will officially ratify her appointment, which is expected within five days, the minister Daniela Santanché has sent a letter to the presidents of Federturismo Confindustria, Confturismo Confcommercio and Assoturismo Confesercenti, asking their formal opinion. 

The appointment is widely seen as a step in the right direction

The first official appearance of the new minister for tourism was at the recent Federalberghi Italian hotel federation’s council. And her first move is a pleasant surprise for the industry. Even taking into account the inevitable limits of action (and budget) of the national tourism agency -  especially compared to its international counterparts - the choice of the new Fiavet president, if formally confirmed, is certainly a step in the right direction as it puts at the head of Enit a strong and competent player. 

The Life Resorts group is preparing to launch Keyz, a new hospitality 2.0 smart hotel brand, which also includes properties on the model of the latest generation of student residences.

They are inspired by avant-garde hospitality formulas like CampusX and The Social Hub (ex The Student Hotel) as well as Joe&Joe and Zleep. 

CEO and founder of the Life Resorts group Enzo Carella broke this news at the Travel Hashtag Conference currently taking place in Borgo Egnazia in Puglia.

"We will soon start with an 83-room property in Rome, developing a significant portfolio in the short term.”

 

The development objectives, in addition to Rome and Milan will include secondary destinations and university towns such as Naples, Rende and Catania. It is believe the Azimut Group is behind the project and is contributing to the financing of four of the properties in the pipeline.