We’re thrilled to have Amanda Jennings, founder of Oliveto Estate, join us for this blog interview. Oliveto Estate, set amidst nine acres of rolling hills and olive groves, captures the essence of Italian luxury, wellness, and immersive travel experiences. In this interview, Amanda shares her vision for the estate, insights into what makes Oliveto Estate a unique destination, and her thoughts on the evolving luxury travel industry.
1. What is your position and what do you do for Oliveto Estates?
I created Oliveto & Co a number of years ago when I saw that there was a need for your private place with tailor made services. All my family are from Le Marche and Emiglia Romagna, so I grew up feeling like Italy was also my home and wanted to open up the region for the discerning traveller who wanted to truly feel like they have discovered untouched Italy, yet can enjoy the luxuries once they get back to the Estate. My background is in product and service innovation, so my ethos is very much trying to remove any barriers guests may have when they are travelling to new places and create hassle free, tailormade stays that make them want to return again and again. As well as my love for Italy, I am passionate about wellbeing and sustainable travel, so Oliveto Estate really marries these passions perfectly.
The estate attracts a diverse, international crowd who have a love for Italy away from the crowds. They are seasoned, discerning travellers who love Italy but are perhaps seeking a more authentic experience in the lesser known, but richly diverse region of Le Marche, without compromising on quality and service. As a small business, I manage the sales, marketing, administration and customer support along with our team on the ground as each visit is different from the next. One of the most fulfilling parts of the roles is tailoring and growing with our selected local partners and artisans: this actually gives me the most pleasure as I see our local partners grow.
2. What are your challenges in your job position for Oliveto Estate?
One of our largest challenges is trying to cut through the repeating press showcasing mostly only the most well visited areas of Italy such as Tuscany and Rome. If we could connect together then perhaps the over tourism would start to reduce in these areas and be shared out with the other lesser known regions of Italy. So finding ways to connect directly to visitors who are coming to Italy for a second or third time round is probably our largest challenge purely as our region is unknown.
3. What are trends telling you about the marketplace?
1. Tailor made support - We are finding that more and more, our guests truly appreciate it when you can hold their hand from arrival to departure. I ask every guest before they arrive how they want to feel when they leave, and we design their trip around that sentiment. Therefore having local knowledge is really important. The support and tailor made advice is one of the key things that ensures usually they return to stay with us in the future. They are not just simply renting a villa when they stay with us, they are also tapping into our knowledge and we are tailoring their stay from start to finish.
2. Away from the crowds - Most of our guests have already been to Italy before, they love the fact that they feel like they have discovered the region, and they feel like they are not getting the typical polished tourist trail experiences, but are really getting to know our partners and learn about why our region is so special.
3. Wellbeing - We host tailor made wellbeing retreats that range from mother and daughter, to yoga and Pilates, to food and biking retreats. Since we started, our focus has been very much on wellness and we are now starting to see that come through for our vacation based guests who also want to have yoga classes, treatments, sound baths and essential oil making classes just as examples.
4. Conscious travel - we focus on being as eco friendly as possible from water filtrating, solar panels, zero mile cooking and we can see that guests are actively searching for this now. We have guests regularly travelling from April through to November, we have really tried to showcase how you can enjoy Italy and Le Marche region outside of the summer 8 weeks, we are passionate about this as it serves well for the local economy and also reduces any over tourism in the future too.
5. Multigenerational travel - We are seeing that guests are coming with 3 or sometimes 4 generations of guests, and being able to accommodate each of their desires is super important to make sure they all go away feeling well rested.
4. What does the future hold for your brand?
We would like to see how we can continue to grow with our local partners of Le Marche and work towards tailoring more corporate and activity based retreats such as workcations and cycling. Further afield, perhaps to also open similar concepts inside and outside of Le Marche.
5. Why be part of a Journeys event?
I was drawn to the ability to build long lasting personal relationships with like minded businesses operating in the luxury end of the industry and I am super excited to be joining in particular the one in Le Marche for my first event!
6. And your parting message – can you highlight one issue that you think we as an industry should be examining in more detail?
How we can collectively raise the profile of the smaller regions to support their growth in a sustainable manner, whilst reducing over tourism in the more well known areas of Italy.
A little bit about Oliveto Estate
Poised high on a hill in Le Marche, with rolling views of olive groves, vineyards and 10 minutes from the Adriatic sea, the Oliveto Estate is designed to the highest standards and beautifully renovated by an Italian-English entrepreneur couple.
The Estate includes two Villas, Villa Olivo and Villa Oliveto, both of which are distinctly designed with their own separate garden, gym, swimming pools, and inside and outdoor living areas. The purpose built Studio is a flexible space overlooking the sea, complete with all equipment for barre, pilates, yoga and aerial yoga. Both Villa’s can be interconnected via their garden’s to create a retreat, holiday or experience for up to 22 guests, or booked separately with Villa Oliveto sleeping 8 and Villa Olivo sleeping 14 guests.
Our hilltop luxury retreat offers tailored year-round exceptional luxury, 5* services and immersive experiences for up to 22 people, such as in-villa Chefs, cooking classes, massage and sound healing to outside activities such as truffle hunting, sailing in the heart of Le Marche which has recently been called out by Forbes, The Telegraph, The Epoch Times and The Guardian as being the new Tuscany without the crowds and a must-see region.
We are humbled to have also recently received quite a bit of publicity, with mentions in Elle Decor Italia and Epoch Times, and recommended by the award-winning author of 'Under the Tuscan Sun', Frances Mayes as a place to stay in her new 'Always Italy' guide.
We are also proud that our newly created Villa Olivo has been selected as one of the very few prestigious Traveller Made Private Places in Italy.
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