Even though there are far bigger problems due to the coronavirus I can’t help wondering what tourism will be like after this? Will people feel safe travelling? Yesterday I was talking about how there were less planes travelling over Livigno, will this become the norm?
Italy tourism industry is worth 13.3% of its GDP, its quite a big wedge of the income of a country, managed right, with all of the wonderful things that Italy has to offer it could have been more, in the immediate future I’m not sure.. when we opened Villa Très Jolie 16 years ago we were the only b&b in our area, down in Sorico there was Il Nido dello Svasso which opened roughly the same time as we did (Gianpaolo and I did the b&b course together and have been friends ever since) but that was it. B&B’s were quite a new thing, for me not of course because they are everywhere in the uk and Ireland but here people didn’t even know what a bed and breakfast was, often I had to explain.
The regional governments of italy set up an incentive scheme to create a network of b&b’s around their areas, we did a course, there was financial help, not a big sum but very gratefully received all the same. It was very difficult to get this which was good because it stopped people just taking the money and doing their house up and then closing. We had to stay open for 10 years before you could close or convert to hotel or whatever, otherwise you had to repay the money. It was very well managed and I was very happy for the help. Most importantly you had to be resident where you were running the B&B, this stopped people just renting out their house while living somewhere else, the whole ethos was to give people the sense of staying with a family, not just a hotel where they give you the key and then the bill and that’s it. You get to chat with the family, find something about about their lives, the country itself and so on. I hope that is what we have done, i wanted it to be an experience for our guests (a good one obviously!) not just a place to stay.
Now there are B&B’s all over the place, many are hotels who have decided to not do half board (chefs being hard and expensive to find!) many are like us, opening their home to guests. The competition is fierce, especially on the lake. Who knows what will happen now…. i think big hotels will do such low prices that it will kill off many of these small hotels and B&B’s who cannot compete.
We have been no.1 or nearby on trip advisor for many years now, others come up, take first place and then disappear, It’s hard to keep maintaining a high level of hospitality. You have to love the job and really like people and want to share your home with them and make their holidays as good as they can be. (Oh and its important to have the winter off to recharge!) Most people really appreciate that and come back year after year. Maybe tourism will become ‘slow’ like the movement in Italy with Slow Food to rediscover local tastes and foods.. maybe people will appreciate even more the personal touch after all this stress. It’s great receiving all the lovely messages from guest/friends maybe i should call them Gurends.
I think that for the next year or so tourism will be only European tourism, Australian, American and Asian country tourists will be a few, not the mass they were. I think that Europe might close itself off a bit from the rest of the world, we need to be united in this period, people need to help each other…. hopefully!! We need to feel more European (obviously i exclude a large percentage of the British who voted for Brexit- the other half i include in this…) we need to be united more not less.
Anyhow that’s enough for one day…. i have been doing some thinking about how to reward our many lovely guests who come year after year and have faith in us. You know who you are, you are more friends than guests… Many have had to cancel but they have immediately said ‘keep the deposit for the next time’ i really appreciate this, this faith in us and the fact that they are looking forward to coming to visit, not just the lake, the view, the beautiful scenery but also us. I have an idea………… watch this blog!
Villa Tres jolie 