The training and information day called Camping Revolution Day took place on Monday, organized by Teamwork in collaboration with FAITA FederCamping with a rich panel of guests. 6 round tables enlivened the day, for a contribution that ranged from market data and trends to more specific sessions dedicated to topics such as revenue management and new technologies. Moving on from a discussion on the camping of the future, from social sustainability to social and web marketing. Here’s how it went.
Open Air 2030: data and trends to guide future choices
The first round table formed the basis for framing the state of the sector in numerical and prospective terms. Valeria Minghetti, researcher at CISET – International Center for Studies on the Tourism Economy, gave some figures essentially confirming what was already presented on the occasion of the SIA Hospitality Design: “After a summer that was truly record-breaking, that of 2022, we have a substantial stabilization thanks to an increase in tariffs which partly offset the contraction in Italian demand. The results were differentiated by territory, not only at the macro geographical area level, but also between regions within the same area and by type of tourism“.
On a more structural level, Minghetti has tried to outline the evolutionary paths of companies, highlighting their models. This is the result of work developed for FAITA Nord-Est and therefore the focus is on Veneto and Friuli-Venezia Giulia. The companies were divided into three categories – the pioneers, the pursuers, and the inert – by analyzing their organizational and management models.
The pioneers are over 50% of the companies operating in the sector. “We are talking about structures that innovate, that have declared that they have made investments in the last 10 years,” Minghetti said. “They are mainly villages located along the coast and by the lake, with a high or medium-high quality of offering and an incidence of new customers compared to traditional ones of more than 50%. And this is an incentive to innovate. 57% of them offer at least 8 additional services compared to the core service, i.e. accommodation, often entrusting them to external management. As regards digitalization, 62% of these companies declare that they have a site with which they do e-commerce, 76% that they sell through specialized portals, and 57% that they also use traditional travel platforms such as Booking.com or Expedia“.
Half made up of pursuers and inertis
The other half of the market is divided between pursuers and inerts. “The former are just over a third of the companies analysed, present in almost all destinations with a slight prevalence in seaside resorts,” highlighted the researcher. “These are medium or medium-low quality structures that have a good diversification of the accommodation offer. They invest above all in qualifying the offer, but the range of services is still limited. They have a good incidence of new customers, thanks also to their level of digitalization, which here reaches 38%. Often, they are companies that sit on the sidelines because they don’t have ideas or because they don’t want or can’t invest“.
The so-called inerts make up 13% of the companies present in Veneto and Friuli. In this case we are talking about companies that have declared that they have not made any investments in the last 10 years and continue to offer a repetitive offering with very few basic services. Together with regulations, which are always a critical aspect in this sector, inerts constitute the riskiest element, because they are companies that could ultimately exit the market.
Minghetti’s evaluation concluded by underlining that the objective was to try to evaluate the ability to invest and innovate in the coming years by answering a question: what will be the prospective positioning of traditional open-air compared to other forms of hospitality that are entering the market offering new holiday solutions perhaps to customers who have never tried to do it in a tourist village campsite? We are faced with a demand that continues to change and becomes more and more demanding. Companies that are able to follow this trend will be the ones most ready to seize the best opportunities.
Traverso’s analysis, Granzotto’s intervention
The speech by Francesco Traverso, CEO of HBenchmark, focused on an analysis that involved more than 50 structures distributed mainly in Veneto, Trentino, Lake Garda, Elba Island, and the Adriatic area. The result essentially highlighted how the quality between 3- and 4-star structures is very similar, showing a flattening that does not favor customer choice. The 5-star structures are instead positioned higher and with an offer that is more clearly distinguishable by customers. In the presentation Traverso also addressed issues related to the origin of customers and average prices.
Alberto Granzotto, president of FAITA FederCamping, has the task of summarizing this first session. “The data gives a series of indications that push us to reflect,” he said. “It clearly emerges that the market is changing, that quality is the main driver, and on this issue, as a country system in Italy, we have a long way to go. Two weeks ago, at the Croatian Camping Congress, PiNCAMP presented the statistics relating to quality in various European countries: Italy is placed in a mid-table position, with a trend in quality growth that places us in the lower part. This is a very delicate topic, because in a changing world, not knowing how to grasp it with the necessary speed creates problems for us.”
“These numbers also highlight to us that the sector is not yet sufficiently diversified,” he added. “The flatness between 3-, 4-, and 5-stars means that we are not yet good at segmenting ourselves in the appropriate way to make customers understand what the differentiation is in terms of quality”.
Revenue Management: manage pricing between price increases and ancillary services
Emanuele Nardin, director of Hotelperformance, introduced the topic by underlining how there is nothing to fear, given that accommodation facilities have been applying it for some time. Even the dynamism of tariffs should not be frightening: it is already adopted today by gas stations and supermarkets and consumers do not consider it unacceptable.
Tina Ingaldi, Sales Manager of MyForecast RMS, underlined how raising and lowering the price based on sentimentis not the most effective way: you must rely on the data and build sensible pricing strategies on these, therefore learning to read them first. It is essential to train the people responsible for data entry and then get help from software to save time and resources. Ingaldi underlined that dynamic pricing does not actually mean just price, which is just one of the levers that lead to sales. In fact, aspects related to urgency, image, and personalization must also be considered.
In this regard, Anna Malfatti, Account Manager of BeSafe Group, spoke and underlined how the combination with travel insurance integrated into the tariff can translate into a competitive advantage. The market for these products is today worth $48.2 billion and the propensity to purchase is growing: 33% of Italians did so in 2023, compared to 25% in 2022. Insurance is being taken not only for a possible cancellation of the trip, but also for medical expenses.
Campsites should allow you to insure your trip quickly and easily, integrating this possibility with their booking systems. In fact, insurance represents a strong marketing lever, offering guests added value. OTAs usually offer very basic insurance, while individual structures can improve their offer by becoming more competitive. The insurance also guarantees the certainty of collection and avoids having to manage procedures, complaints, and possible reimbursements.
Closing this round table was Beatrice Breseghello, Sales Representative of CloudVillage and Artemis Group. She had the task of underlining the importance of ancillary services, i.e. those goods or services not strictly related to the core business. They can be internal services to the structure (catering, spa, swimming pool) or external ones on which one simply makes a margin (excursions, transfers, pay TV, laundry, garage). The ideal, according to Breseghello, is to adopt a mixed formula. To encourage the use of these services, we need to leverage the emotional aspect. In fact, a purchase decision passes through a process that lasts only about 10 seconds and which develops into attention, attraction, interest, analysis, and action. All in three steps: identification of the need, search for information, evaluation of alternatives.
Camping of the future: how to innovate the camping village for tomorrow’s guests
In this panel the discussion focused on the camping of tomorrow. Starting from current trends, the speakers tried to draw the outlines of future accommodation facilities. Nicola Delvecchio, Teamwork Consultant, underlined how the new guests, those born after 2005, will be looking for time, space, and silence. Other consolidated trends include the possibility of combining holidays and work, concrete attention to the environment and well-being and the search for innovative outdoor experiences.
The outdoor demand of the future will see on the one hand those who wish to remain anchored to an idea of camping linked to nature and the desire to be “unplugged”, while on the other hand we will look for villages and campsites capable of offering a more hotel-like formula. In between there will be people looking for unusual experiences.
In this context, Sergio Redaelli, CEO of Crippaconcept, summarized the path of innovation undertaken by his company since 2010: starting with an initial aesthetic transformation of mobile homes, it has arrived over the years at functional research carried out in collaboration with some important universities. Without forgetting the sustainability aspects. The latest innovations are the Vittoria Room, specifically designed for adoption in the context of hotel-level services and, soon to be presented, the first “tiny house” by Crippaconcept.
“For us the future is represented by young people,” said Redaelli. “They are the ones who will give us ideas on how to proceed. This is why we collaborate with the University of Pavia, with the Polytechnic, and the Catholic University: together with them we try to create innovation. These teams of people that we are growing give us ideas which will then be brought into reality. The real step into the future is to have young people in their twenties interpret our sector, who unfortunately are not familiar with it“.
Alberto Burro, CEO of Bubble Stars, finally brought to the stage the concept of “bubble” accommodation, which in certain contexts is gaining space and attention. And to give strength to his presentation, Claudio Galassi, owner of Camping Casa di Caccia, in Tuscany, was involved and has already installed a “bubble” for a few years with great satisfaction: in high season it is possible to obtain up to €600 per night.
Beyond sustainability: people, environment, performance
In this session the speakers talked about social sustainability. Antonio Miano, Teamwork Consultant addressed aspects related to employment, the right to decent work, and how to attract and retain workers in the company. Which are not just a question of salary. You must always ask yourself if your collaborators are willing to put their face forward to promote the company, perhaps on social media. It is important to act on the well-being of workers, which is not necessarily an economically costly thing. Only in this way can they build loyalty from one season to the next.
Gianfranco Vitali, owner of Camping Holiday Village Florenz, instead touched on the theme of inclusion, underlining once again how strong attention towards disabled people can lead not only to great moral satisfaction, but ultimately also to significant economic results. The revenues of his campsite in 2022 linked to people with disabilities amounted to almost €379,000, up 10 percent compared to the previous year.
In addition to 37 accessible houses, 9 houses accessible to the blind, and walkways on the beach for access to the sea with wheelchairs, at the Florenz the reception is also looked after by a disabled person. “Luca works with us, a boy in a wheelchair who welcomes customers and who is a pleasant surprise for them,” said Vitali. “It’s not a usual thing, but a clear sign of the quality of hospitality and inclusion that my campsite has achieved”.
Social & Web Marketing: how to promote the camping village online
With Ferdinando Iustini, owner of Camping.it, absent due to a personal problem, the session saw a long and interesting speech by Riccardo Viroli, CEO of CampingVillage.Marketing. The first important concept that he wanted to convey is that the way of communicating has changed radically. Today, a global study has revealed that on average we spend almost two and a half hours on social media every day. And here too we communicate differently than we did until a few years ago. This is done in a much more emotional and engaging way and therefore it is necessary that the choices of accommodation facilities reflect this change.
The second element highlighted by Viroli is that, like it or not, today we can no longer ignore Google Ads and Meta(Facebook and Instagram). “We have to take this aspect into consideration very seriously, because even today I find myself at tables where they tell me they don’t want to invest in these platforms,” Viroli said. “This thing, however, has become necessary, fundamental. I agree with the idea of investing as little as possible, but in any case, it is a war that must be fought with those weapons“.
Viroli then underlined the importance of pushing for the uniqueness of one’s accommodation facility and highlighted how certain tools, such as newsletters, are anything but obsolete. The important thing is to have clear ideas on what to communicate and create a real editorial plan that gives continuity to corporate communication. On social media you then need to run repetitive campaigns, even without investing large sums, but without ever stopping them and always linked to emotional aspects.
In the world of Google Ads today the lion’s share is played by technique, which makes interaction a bit complex. Using Google Ads is no longer a trivial thing: the investment must be optimized, but the results are very good. It should also be kept in mind that today 58% of the organic positioning of websites on search engines is no longer dictated by the content, but by the technical infrastructure of the site. And the site is the tool that converts, so it should not be overlooked. Sites today must be designed as “mobile only”, they must describe the structure and its services and must give priority to the “goods” to be sold. In three steps they must reflect the true values of the structure.
Technologies and new tools: how to improve camping village management and the guest experience
In the last session, dedicated to technologies, Marco Di Giampietro, CEO of No Paper Solution, highlighted the importance of digital transformation from an environmental point of view: reducing the printing of simple sheets of paper, for any service, has an important impact. His company’s customers have saved the printing of almost 30 million sheets of A4 paper this year.
Digitalizing a check-in process also means offering the customer a new experience and above all achieving a faster process. Using scanners and tablets you can almost halve the time it takes to register a couple of guests. In addition to the registration card, there are many other documents that are offered to be signed and signed: their digitization also allows you to save space and makes them easier to find.
Paolo Ferrari, CEO of pod.camp, had the task of talking about PMS (Property Management System), highlighting how those dedicated to open-air structures must necessarily be different from those for the classic hotel world. What they have in common, however, is the automatic door opening system, which according to Ferrari could also be widely used in the mobile home sector. In open-air structures we are now talking about “widespread PMS”, made up of the use of apps: access control and guest identification thus pass from the customer’s telephone, without having to go through the reception.
Finally, Marco Vescovi, Product Manager of Jampaa, presented the Open Air Hub solution, a software created in collaboration with FAITA FederCamping to help campsites manage all the information concerning the accommodation facility, in particular multimedia information, and distribute it automatically. The same tool also allows you, by exploiting artificial intelligence, to create posts for the social world quickly and effectively.
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