Thanks to the Bi Holiday group and CISET, the first Italian Academy for open-air operators was born

The first Italian Academy for the open-air tourism sector was born from the collaboration between the private group Bi Holiday – which directly manages the Villaggio San Francesco in Caorle, in the Venice area, and Bi Village in Fažana, in Croatia – and CISET, the International Centre for Studies on the Economics of Tourism. It was presented on January 23 at a press conference in the Marino Berengo Lecture Hall of Ca’ Foscari University in the presence, among others, of the Veneto Region’s Councillor for Tourism, Federico Caner; the National President of FAITA-Federcamping, Alberto Granzotto; the President of CISET, Michele Tamma; and the Managing Director of Bi Holiday, Ilenia Cherubin.

Federico Caner emphasised the importance of the Academy at a fruitful time like this for open-air tourism to increase the quality of services offered, especially from a strategic planning perspective. For the Veneto Region, 2022 was a very positive year, in some periods even exceeding the record year 2019.

The national president Alberto Granzotto of FAITA, which represents the owners of Italian open-air accommodation facilities, also took the same view: “The personnel crisis that has hit many productive sectors, particularly those with prevalent seasonal activity, worries us greatly. This is a crisis that cannot be resolved in the short term or with simple remedies, but must be tackled from many sides. Among the reaction initiatives that need to be put in place is certainly specific vocational training to enable the employment of young people, including students, and personnel from other sectors. For these reasons, we can only warmly welcome the Bi Holiday initiative, which we were very happy to join and participate in”.

The training offer

BiAcademy is the first training project for operators in the open-air sector in the Italian panorama. The course conceived by Bi Holiday with CISET aims, in its almost 200 hours, to provide them with all the skills not only in the field of communication and hospitality, but also in the knowledge of the territory and its opportunities, in order to be able to support guests’ experience in the best possible way. Special attention will be given to the development of digital skills and the ability to manage time, priorities, and relationships with colleagues. “The teaching is mainly based on interaction and simulations in order to put the students/new employees in contact with real situations as much as possible and to make the learning suitable for everyone, and the faculty consists of senior experts, professionals, and partly also Bi Holiday managers themselves,” added Federica Montaguti, Senior Researcher at CISET. “There will also be two intensive weeks at the Villaggio San Francesco so that the students will then feel at ease in the facility and get to know the area better“.