TOP NEWS

🐶 Club del Sole acquires Roseto degli Abruzzi Easy Camping Village in Abruzzo, showcasing a strong dog-friendly approach, designed with Dog-in Dog-out for exclusive pet services, including a Dog Pool and Dog Spray Park. The operator now totals 27 villages across 8 Italian regions, offering over 9,000 housing solutions. CEO Francesco Giondi highlights a broader development plan with 7 new facilities since 2024 and ongoing investments, aiming to provide nature, comfort, and freedom year-round.

🏡 Castelfalfi, a Tuscan resort managed by Roberto Protezione, earned its first entry into the Forbes Star Awards 2025 with a five-star rating. Key to their success is investment in quality, standards, and personnel, citing a 100% staff retention in some departments. The resort introduced the 650 square meter event space Aria and renovated Il Rosmarino restaurant, opened Ricci suites in November 2024, and invested heavily in its spa, including staff training in Thailand. Target markets in 2025 include South America, Canada, the UK, Australia, and the USA, with Indian ownership contributing to its success.

🏘 Outdoor hospitality spaces blur the indoor-outdoor divide, providing all-season comfort with bioclimatic pergolas, mood lighting, and high-tech surfaces. Wellness areas feature integrated pools and spas. Pratic's Opera bioclimatic design evolves with Set, a modular deck that compensates for ground unevenness, customizable with any outdoor flooring. Its adjustable slats (0-140 degrees) ensure sustainable comfort, and Glass Series panoramic windows protect from elements, making spaces welcoming year-round.

📱 Serenissima Informatica partnered with Planet and the protel Solution Partner Network at ITB Berlin, a key event focusing on advanced cloud technologies, digital tools, and innovative strategies for the hospitality industry. Alessandro Calligaris, Marketing Director, stressed ITB Berlin's strategic value for showcasing solutions and reinforcing partnerships. Nicolas Ongarato, Hospitality Solutions Specialist, highlighted the importance of industry dialogue to address the needs of professionals such as hotel managers and IT heads. The company promotes cloud solutions like protel Cloud PMS, emphasizing the shift toward more flexible, secure, and integrated hotel management systems.

🏖️ In Piemonte, 2024 saw a record tourism year with over 6.28 million arrivals and 16.89 million overnight stays, marking a 3.6% and 4.1% increase from 2023. International visitors, accounting for 53% of total overnight stays, rose by 5%, with a notable 12% increase from the USA and 36% from China. Domestic tourism also flourished, supported by a 57.3% increase in rooms and 55.1% increase in beds over the last decade. Tourist rentals surged by 42.2% between 2023 and 2024, while non-hotel accommodations grew by 4.9%. Piemonte's online reputation scored 87.6 out of 100, reflecting high-quality hospitality and regional efforts to enhance the tourism industry. Regional officials, including Marina Chiarelli and Alberto Cirio, emphasize the importance of training in the tourism sector and maintaining high standards.

🍰 Selezione Centro-Sud di EmergentePastry 2026 concluded at Dolce&Salato school, Maddaloni, Caserta, with four finalists announced for the National Final in autumn. Contestants, under-30 professionals, prepared a plated dessert, a baked dessert, and two types of finger food, using sponsors' ingredients. Special awards: "best chocolate plated dessert" to Giusy Persico (Il Buco, Sorrento, Campania), "best baked dessert" to Sara Mazzolini (INEO, Anantara Palazzo Naiadi Rome Hotel, Roma, Lazio), "best leavened" to Barbara Pia Ruscinito (Lombardi Pasticcieri, Maddaloni, Campania).

🏖️ At the Università Europea di Roma from March 19 to 21, 2025, the 24th edition of FareTurismo will connect training and job opportunities in the tourism sector, which represents 10.8% of Italy's GDP and is projected to reach 12.6% in the next decade. In 2024, Italy saw a record 2.5% growth in tourism, with 458.4 million presences, outperforming the European average (+1.9%) and France (450.1 million). The sector accounts for 13% of Italy's national employment. FareTurismo includes job interviews with 40 companies, educational offers, exhibitions, conferences, seminars, academic networking, and 2,000 pre-bookable selection interviews. Prestigious chains like Hilton and Bulgari Hotel Roma are hiring for various positions. The event highlights the 4+2 educational model, aligning secondary education with ITS Academy training.

🍷 Wine counterfeiting is estimated to cost the industry around $3 billion annually, reducing original wine and spirit sales by 6.6%. The European Union Intellectual Property Office's (EUIPO) TRACEWINDU project, including participants like the University of Pisa, is developing a digital passport to ensure product authenticity using blockchain technology that captures a wine's unique chemical signature from its environment. Led by Professor Manuel Valiente from the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB), the four-year initiative will last until early 2026, creating a nearly tamper-proof verification method with a QR code on each bottle's label, providing detailed product information to consumers.

📈 Italy's hospitality sector enters the post-luxury era, with opportunities expanding beyond exclusive 5-star accommodations. In 2024, the total transaction value reached approximately €1.8 billion, involving about 80 deals. Among them, high-value transactions (over €20 million) accounted for 80% of the total, numbering 30. Repositioning, which involves the acquisition and upgrading of existing hotels, dominated 65% of investments. Half of the investments maintained a luxury orientation. Investment interest is shifting from traditional art cities to areas like Lake Como (€180 million in 2024 with 4 operations), Sicily, Sardinia, and Puglia, indicating a gradual change in appeal and structure type. Hotel management agreements and owner-operator models represent 40% and 30% of the market, respectively.

📈 Hospitality design trends are moving towards a sophisticated mix of technological innovation, personalization, sustainability, and multisensory experience. Allied Market Research values the global contract furniture market at $153 billion, with an annual growth rate of 5.4% projected until 2030. In Europe, the hospitality segment is worth approximately €45 billion, whereas in Italy, contract furniture accounts for 30% of the total furniture sector turnover, over €17 billion out of €52 billion, especially expanding in hotels, restaurants, and food retail. Host 2025, the leading global event for hospitality technologies, formats, and layouts, organized by Fiera Milano, will take place from October 17-21 in Rho, Milan, with over 1,400 exhibitors, 44% of whom are international from over 50 countries. Host 2025 will feature the Smart Label – Host Innovation Award for sustainable innovation in three categories and is accepting product or project submissions until April 30, 2025.