We are delighted to be partnering with Park Hotel Ai Cappuccini for our Journeys in Italy event in Umbria as they will be hosting an entire day at their property in Gubbio with experiences filled with culture and networking.
We interviewed the CEO, Maria Carmela Colaiacovo so you can get to learn a little more about Park Hotel ai Cappuccini and Maria Carmela's thoughts on the industry.
Here is the interview, happy reading!
Could you give us an overview of your professional background?
After graduating in Political Science I started working in the family business and have been ever since.
How did you arrive at your company?
My family has businesses in some economic sectors and I chose to work in the tourism sector which I thought was very stimulating.
Give us an overview of Park Hotel ai Cappucini?
Our key operating international markets are mainly the USA, Israel, Canada, and Northern and Central Europe. Our customers are particularly interested in well-being, local, authentic experiences and slow tourism.
We are ranked among the best spa resort in Italy, for our well-being programs that go from losing excess weight in a natural way to detox process activities based on natural products, but we are also among the best meeting and conference hubs for our well-thought, spacious and naturally lit conference rooms and organized spaces.
We are among the very few Luxury Bike Hotels for our focus on active tourism and our specific services in this segment of the market. We are proud members of SLH.
How are you intending to evolve your offerings over the short and long term?
Sales calls and fam trips are the keys to our future marketing activities, since they provide our partners, in a B-to-B relationship a first-hand, authentic experience to sell to their final clients.
What are your customers telling you about the marketplace?
They want more and more authentic experiences that will allow them to connect with the locals.
What trends are you seeing in the market?
Travelling is becoming a need, since Covid has given us the perception that freedom of movement is precious. Getting to know new places, experiencing new food, slowing down the rhythm and reconnecting with nature and people, are what a modern tourist wants.
What challenges do you perceive for the wider industry?
Travelling is becoming more and more difficult with flight companies that are less and less reliable and flight rates that will never be low cost again. The era of low-cost travelling seems to be gone for good.
Could you give us a notable highlight or achievement that you’re particularly proud of?
We are particularly proud of every single step that is leading us to a more sustainable attitude towards the environment that surrounds us, supporting local producers, including people with different abilities into our staff, recycling and never wasting resources and re-investing our resources into a more sustainable way of living and working, because there is no Planet B 😊.
What advice do you have for those starting out in the industry?
- Study the market and your competitors and remember that competitors are transversal.
- Find what distinguishes your property from the rest of the market, find your unique selling proposition and work on it.
- Be where your client is and use all the channels of conversational marketing to connect with him or her.
- Invest one penny in the product and two pennies in communication, because in the era of web marketing, it is not enough to be online, it is fundamental to be seen.
And your parting message – can you highlight one issue that you think we as an industry should be examining in more detail?
Increase the chances to connect with people, never forgetting the human factor, using all the tools that digitalization provides us with, while improving and increasing chances of connecting with people with “in person”, networking activities throughout the year, because, by the end of the day, it is only personal relationships that create sales.
We cannot wait to welcome you to Journeys in Italy on the 28th of November!
The spaces are almost sold out so join now to avoid disappointment. Please email micaela@journeys.global if you are interested!
Ciao for now!
Micaela and the Journeys Team.