Since June he has been the new president of FAITA-FederCamping. Graduated in Economics and Commerce from the Ca’ Foscari University of Venice and qualified as a Chartered Accountant, Alberto Granzotto has always lived the world of outdoor tourism in his family businesses. Grandfather Amedeo, together with his father Gianni and uncle Paolo, founded the International Tourist Village in Bibione at the end of the 1950s. Today Granzotto is its CEO. His father subsequently took over two other campsites in Cavallino Treporti, the Cà Pasquali and the Vela Blu, which Granzotto currently manages together with his brother Andrea.
For over 20 years he has been a member of the Board of Assocamping in Cavallino, a place famous throughout Europe in our sector, and after two terms as regional councilor he became President of FAITA-FederCamping Nord-Est in 2019. Granzotto is also a member of the Councils of Confturismo Veneto, Unionmare Veneto, ITS and Tourism in Veneto and from 1997 to 2006 he was president of the company that launched the Bibione.com site.
At the invitation of several colleagues and for the importance that he has always recognized for trade associations, he enthusiastically accepted to run for the national presidency.
You have been elected a few weeks ago. What are the programs and conditions against which your candidacy has proved successful?
Alberto Granzotto: I believe that a vision of federal commitment that combines the growth and involvement of regional associations with concrete partnership and lobbying actions has been appreciated. But above all, I think my colleagues liked the idea of increasing the training of entrepreneurs and accentuating the digital transition of individual companies with targeted programs. At the center of my commitment I have placed the independence of the Federation and the dialogue with all the subjects that animate our production chain.
Will we see an action of discontinuity with respect to what the Federation has done in recent years or under your leadership will the action of representation and support continue in the wake of what was set by your predecessor?
Alberto Granzotto: I believe it is a precious heritage as it has been built over the years by the Vianello presidency. For my part, I intend to reshape and strengthen the image of the sector by relaunching it with every useful tool to give the importance and weight that they compete to to outdoor tourism companies.
The industry is facing its second season marked by the pandemic. What support has FAITA-FederCamping given to its members?
Alberto Granzotto: The Federation has never stopped being at the service and available to every entrepreneur in these two years. In this sense, the commitment of our general secretary Marco Sperapani has constituted an important and constant resource and point of reference over time. The coordination and availability of the many colleagues involved in the individual regional associations were a further tool that found the necessary echo in the federal social networks to reach and satisfy the requests of individual entrepreneurs. The constant, punctual, documented dialogue with the government and administrative bodies has completed the commitment framework in this 2-year emergency that unfortunately I fear is still far from ending.
Do you think that at an economic and regulatory level, the support work carried out by the government was sufficient to support open-air accommodation facilities in the current situation?
Alberto Granzotto: In the past, not as much as we would have liked or how much it should have been. More recently, under the leadership of Minister Garavaglia, there seems to be a greater and more precise attention to tourism in general and to our sector in particular. In the future we will strive to have that visibility, audience and attention in the political sphere that a mature and strategic sector like ours deserves.
Regardless of the pandemic, what are the most pressing problems facing the sector in your opinion?
Alberto Granzotto: There are many problems on the mat, but I would say that first of all we will have to:
- intervene on the technical and structural definition of mobile homes and on the related installation methods, as well as on the incomprehensible rule for stacking them;
- encourage energy efficiency for the sector through the interventions provided for the “redevelopment bonus”;
- affect the TARI tariffs also through national/territorial agreements for the so-called self-referral;
- reach a specific Istat classification and renegotiate a whole series of conventions, such as those relating to the companies that manage the rights of authors and composers.
What kind of dialogue and work must be set up with government representatives to ensure that the sector has the right “weight”?
Alberto Granzotto: A constant and qualified dialogue to increase the credibility and visibility of a class of entrepreneurs now in its third and, in many cases, the fourth generation, the bearer of a rich and in many ways avant-garde know-how. We will credit our modality as a sector of primary importance, where sustainability, comfort and contact with nature are not just slogans, but pure and simple everyday reality. The development of a qualified and updated tourist Observatory will be a very important tool in this direction.
At this point of the season, is it possible to make a sort of balance sheet and/or forecast on the 2021 trend?
Alberto Granzotto: 2021 will mark, if things continue along the lines of what has been recorded so far, a very important recovery compared to the catastrophic season of 2020, which saw losses in arrivals, presences and turnover in the order of 50% in many areas of Italy, even if we will have to wait until 2022/2023 to return to pre-pandemic levels.
The success of sales in recreational vehicles, especially at a European level, is partly changing the needs of tourists. In your opinion, are the Italian accommodation facilities ready?
Alberto Granzotto: For years, itinerant tourism has had the most natural and adequate of “landing places” in campsites. The growth in sales and registrations is a positive sign that companies must grasp by adapting and expanding their offer to these guests and their vehicles, encouraging and promoting their conscious and correct use. In this, recent contacts with trade associations and organizers of the Salone del Camper in Parma are aimed precisely at making the quality of our proposal known to a wider audience.
Is there adequate collaboration and communication between the national federations at the European level or would greater coordination work be desirable?
Alberto Granzotto: EFCO is the European representative body of our sector, which FAITA-FederCamping has adhered to since its foundation. So far it has done its job correctly; however, a greater and more efficient synergy between its members is always desirable and we will work in this direction to increase the weight of the sector in the Community institutions.
Christian Ghünter – BVCD