People
Loek van de Loo – Vacanze col Cuore
The 2020 tourist season for Italian campsites is only now beginning to take shape. The emergency first, and then the control, of the health situation have in fact completely changed the characteristics of this summer. The director of Camping Business, Antonio Mazzucchelli, met Loek van de Loo, founder of Vacanze col Cuore, to hear the trend, results and expectations for these unusual months from his lively voice.
| 1/3 | Camping Business: Camping Business: How is it going this season and how have you thought about taking action? Loek van de Loo: Loek van de Loo: It is a very strange season. I have been doing this job for 35 years and I am used to fighting problems of all kinds, but this year is the most challenging one of my career. At the beginning of the season, when the "lockdown" began, we feared that we would not be able to open for the whole of 2020. The first step was therefore to understand, analyzing our budget, what would have been the cost to keep the facilities closed and reopen them next year. Then we realized that there would be some Italian tourism, so we decided to lower prices and reduce services, to propose glamping at a more convenient level. Usually our group works 85% with foreign tourists, especially Dutch and Germans, while with the Italians is more difficult. Camping Business: The camping culture of a certain level is perhaps less widespread ... Loek van de Loo: Exactly. Let's say that camping is still considered by the new Italian generations as it once was, characterized by large tables set up for the party and purely seasonal. Instead things are changing, and now about 300/400 structures in Italy have developed into “horizontal” hotels with all the services: swimming pools, restaurant, market and so on. And maybe we were wrong not to promote them enough in Italy.  | |
Elena Oppizzi – Lagodigardacamping.com