"We welcome and thank Ministers Santanché and Piantedosi for the sensitivity they have shown on the issue of the passport chaos that is causing inconvenience to citizens and damaging the tourist industry," said Franco Gattinoni, president of Confcommercio's Federation of Organised Tourism.

Members are experiencing delays of many months

"The meeting between the ministers responds to the appeal launched by our Federation many months ago, and it highlighted the seriousness of the problem. Our members are experiencing delays of many months in several parts of the country. Both their turnover and their hard work are going up in smoke.” 

“We need investments in personnel and the digitization of passport offices”

“This is an unacceptable disservice on the part of a public administration that should be supporting our sector in this delicate phase of recovery after two difficult pandemic years. Concrete measures need to be implemented without delay to solve the problem, investing in personnel and the digitization of passport offices”.

Nestled in thirteen hectares of bioenergetic woodland in the hills embracing Lake Como, the Tenuta de l'Annunziata is an oasis of peace and tranquility for a romantic Valentine’s weekend. 

The Valentine’s package starts on 16 February

Don’t miss this perfect location to celebrate Valentine’s Day with pampering in the spa and gourmet dining. The special romantic Valentine's Day package (from Thursday 16 February) includes one or more nights in a double room with  breakfast, and four hours daily access to the SPA for every night spent at the hotel. 

The Tenuta de l'Annunziata's SPA extends over 1,500 square metres, and all the products used are the Tenuta's own agricultural production. The regenerating path winds its way through an indoor pool with hydro-massage, a Kneipp path, hammam, Turkish bath, Finnish and herbal sauna, experience showers, an ice fountain and a herbal tea room. For an even more intimate experience for couples, the Candle Massage is a special treatment to share with your partner to relax the body and the mind by enveloping the five senses. 

Quercus Restaurant

End the day with a candlelight dinner in the Quercus Restaurant

And speaking of the five senses and candles, why not seal the romantic weekend with a candlelight dinner at the Quercus Restaurant, where Chef Salvatore Musso’s cuisine is to be savoured slowly like the stanzas of a love poem. Prices: an overnight stay in a double room and breakfast from €300 (includes: welcome flûte in the room and entrance to the SPA including the SPA kit.) 
Candlelight massage for couples: € 190. Dinner at the Quercus Restaurant: à la carte

The Th Costa Rei - Free Beach Resort is the new property in Sardinia of Th Resorts which now has 16 beach, eleven mountain and four urban properties in Italy. 

“This further consolidates our positioning and presence in Sardinia”

The acquisition of the historic Free Beach Club was conducted in partnership with Iti Marina Hotels & Resorts. The property, in one of the most evocative areas of Sardinia’s south-eastern coast, has 400 rooms in a natural amphitheatre on the Costa Rei beach.

"What we are celebrating today is an important milestone," said Th Group President Graziano Debellini, "The Th Costa Rei - Free Beach Resort had been in our sights for some time, and further consolidates our positioning and presence in Sardinia.” 

Following the Th Chia - Parco Torre Chia, the Padua-based company returns to Sardinia, where it also manages the Th San Teodoro - Liscia Eldi and the Tci La Maddalena.

The Th Resorts group is acquiring another resort

"The addition of this important and historic holiday village to our Sardinian portfolio, which is much appreciated by an international clientele, is part of our development project, which includes the acquisition of another resort within the next few months,” said the group's administrator, Giuliano Gaiba.  "We have been in this area for 45 years, and adding the historic Free Beach Resort to our 35 properties is a source of great pride and heartfelt professional and personal, satisfaction," said Piero Loi, general manager of Iti Marina Hotels & Resorts.

The Destination Italia Group is focusing on sports tourism and has just subscribed to equity financial instruments in Engagigo, the SME that owns the portal www.endu.net. 

Englobing endurance sports in Italy

The aim is that of developing ad hoc services for the sports tourism market. The first stage of the partnership will focus on developing packages for participants in the thousands of endurance competitions held in Italy, including marathons, trail running, road and off-road cycling races, swimming in pools and open seas, cross-country skiing, triathlons, and mixed races. 

The focus is on popular and appealing Italian regions

Endu already has 750,000 registered users, 2,200 sports teams, and over 300,000 online sporting- event registrations. The packages will be distributed via the portal to international tour operators and Destination Italia b2b customers. In the medium term, the collaboration envisions the creation of new experiential tourist products geared toward outdoor and endurance sports enthusiasts, with a focus on some highly popular and appealing Italian regions.

“Our ambition…is to become an international market maker” 

“Our group has great ambitions, - says Destination Italia shareholder Dina Ravera, - the most important being to become an international market maker, capable of influencing the export of Italian tourism while intercepting and channelling the flows of international travellers to our peninsula, with a strong focus on high-spenders. Two months ago we announced the acquisition of Portale Sardegna, as well as the launch of Destination Beauty, an innovative start-up focused on aspirational beauty tourism. With the investment in Endu we intend to continue the development of highly vertical services for the segment of endurance and outdoor sports enthusiasts, which has millions of practitioners worldwide.” 

Bringing high-spending return visitors to Italy

The proprietary vertical tourism products being developed and managed are critical to the group's development strategy for bringing high-spending return visitors to Italy at different times of the year.

“Even in the sports industry, Italy must provide dream destinations and they must be proactively proposed to international operators and be enhanced through integrated offers.”

Air Transat takes off for Italy this summer with 18 direct flights including, from May, 18 direct flights from Toronto and Montreal to Rome Fiumicino, Venice and Lamezia Terme airports. 

The direct flights will be operated by Airbus A330s 

In total there will be seven flights a week from both Toronto and Montreal to Rome; two flights a week from Montreal to Venice, one flight a week from Toronto also to Venice, and one flight weekly from Toronto to Lamezia Terme. The routes will be operated by Airbus A330s with 346 seats (12 in Club Class and 334 in Economy) or 375 seats (12 in Club Class and 363 in Economy).

88 weekly direct flights from Montreal to 19 European destinations

During the summer peak months Air Transat will operate 275 weekly flights to more than 40 destinations. From Montréal there will be 88 weekly direct flights to 19 European destinations, and from Toronto, 73 weekly direct flights to 15 cities in Europe including three direct weekly flights to Paris and one to London from Québec City.

Filippo Lunardi is the new general manager of the Palazzina Grassi in Venice which is part of the Relegance - The Unexpected collection. 

Experience in Leading Hotels of the World properties

Born in 1983, Lunardi boasts over 15 years in the hotel industry in high-end properties belonging mostly to the Leading Hotels of the World circuit in Italy and abroad. Before joining Relegance, Lunardi was hotel manager at the Palazzo Venart, also in Venice, and resort manager at the Andana Hotel in Castiglione della Pescaia. He previously worked at the Regina Baglioni in Rome and the Hotel Baglioni in London.

"It is a great honour for me to take over the leadership of the Palazzina Grassi, - says Lunardi.  - With the support of the team at the hotel I will develop its potential, enhancing its special features and strong identity.”

Ruralis.com promotes rentals in off-the-beaten path locations in rural Italy, helping both owners and travelers seeking a perfect rural getaway, by connecting them digitally. 

Ruralis.com provides qualitative multilingual customer care support

This innovative startup boosts hospitality in rural areas, offering an alternative to traditional tourist destinations. Often it can be difficult to find a perfect rural property that meets the expectations for a perfect getaway. Often the best way is to find a property online and then communicate with the owner, but often they do not speak English. So in steps Ruralis.com, providing qualitative multilingual customer care support that allows travelers to find and book high quality rural properties with ease.

Ruralis.com team

Full assistance to owners for promotion and revenue generation

Ruralis uses the most recent technologies to maximize promotions, advertising the property on the 100 largest platforms such as Airbnb and booking.com and allowing owners to enjoy the passive income. Moreover Ruralis manages the pricing and calendar with simple, easy-to-use tools.

Garibaldi Hotels had a good 2022, with a 29% growth in turnover compared to the previous year, and is looking forward to 2023 with optimism.

Price increases hover on the horizon

On the horizon, however, hovers the ghost of price increases, which could partly undermine the company's positive trend.

"We have worked wisely to get to this point. After the last few difficult years, we started with 2019 results, our target for the end of the year," says general manager Fabrizio Prete.

Group sales are up by 10%

Stretching the season, investments, and commercial agreements are the key points of the Apulian hotel group's strategy, leading to both an increase in direct sales and +10% for groups.

"The winter season is rewarding us with positive results. Bookings for our Monzoni, Piaz and Fratazza properties in the Trentino have posted an average rate increase of some 8%.”

“We are optimistic for 2023 but costs are a major deterrent”

The positive results, however, risk being hit by the continuous price increases.

“We feel this looming threat given the price increases. We have calculated an average 80% increase for energy costs, and 30% for raw materials, especially food. We are optimistic for 2023 but costs are certainly a major deterrent to growth.”