Ttourism and new jobs. They are more than 1 million 342 thousand and represent 22.18 percent of Italian entrepreneurship. This is the photograph of women’s businesses taken by Unioncamere at the end of September 2022. But there’s more. In recent years many “pink” start-ups have been born in the field that makes you dream the most, that of travel, as demonstrated by theStart Up Tourism Associationwhich represents the sector in Italy.
For the president, Karin Venneri, «to understand what tomorrow’s tourism will be like, we need to look at today’s tourism startupsthe”. And often the ideas and the desire to start these entrepreneurial adventures were born in the strangest, most amusing ways, or from friendships. Here are five success stories.
1. Tourism trend and new jobs: stable scent
The gift received from her boyfriend had been decidedly original and appreciated: a day of milking in a small dairy in the Pre-Alps french. AND Marianne Auzaneton his return, had thought of repeating the experience in Italy, but could not find any platform that offered this service, or similar ones in contact with work in the fields.
«Time to think about it for a moment and she was born in 2021 Agri-experience. The architecture of the project was complex, first of all for the search for agricultural realities willing to participate but also for the hygienic-sanitary regulations that regulate farms from region to region. In June of last year we had eight active experiences and the first guest arrived. Today on the site, which will soon be multilingual, we have reached 40 activities in the countryside, from North to South, which can last half a day or include an overnight stay. A way to discover different jobs and also places of environmental value, such as the countryside of Seminara in Calabria, where you go to pick the olives with the traditional method, or the Bosco di Falconeria, between Alcamo and Partinico, where you harvest and then taste the must”.
Tourism and new jobs. The holiday is in contact with nature. (Getty Images)
2. Discovering popular music
Alessandra, Marialuisa and Alessia are joined by notes. They have always had a passion for music festivals, but also for small tourist destinations, far from the usual circuits. «So we decided to create Butik» says Alessandra, «a social enterprise aimed at promoting marginal areas of our country, perhaps at risk of abandonment, and making them known through music.
And there is also the Music Tourism Festival
So with concerts and festivals, which bring together tour operators, music and local communities, to enhance a heritage that is not the usual one of classical music or jazz but above all of folklore and other genres. We have created a unique database that quantifies and maps the national musical heritage, to increase knowledge of the music chain and to estimate the value that this type of tourism can generate. In addition to this, we work on commission, with consultancy, communication, travel design, and then on Italian funding tenders. We have created the Music Tourism Festival which takes place every year in October in a different place. For 2023 the appointment is in Naples».
3. Tourism of the future: luxury stays for Fido
«One evening I was getting ready to go out to dinner, I was in the shower and I was thinking about everything I should have done before going out, like feeding my dog» he says Sara Merighi one of the three founders of Food for dogs. “A strange idea suddenly crossed my mind: how nice it would be to feed him with me at a restaurant. Arrived in the restaurant, I talked about it at the table with a friend of mine who at the time had a pet shop and she, who usually always slams me, approved.
And so we started with an innovative Doggy Lunch Box designed to feed the dog comfortably, healthily and away from home. A box that acts as a bowl, containing a hamburger that can be made of different types of meat and vegetables, without preservatives and colourings, pasteurized and vacuum packed. It doesn’t need cooking and it doesn’t need a fridge, so it’s ideal for restaurants that can offer it to customers who don’t want to leave their beloved dog at home. So at the table, along with the menu for diners, also comes the Wow Menu. We work a lot with restaurants but also with important hotels such as the Mandarin and the Villa d’Este, for example, which are attentive to innovations.
From the Doggy Lunch Box to hotel service
From the Doggy Lunch Box we then moved on to the preparations for make hotel rooms truly pet-friendly. The guest does not have to bring anything from home and once he arrives he will find bowls, quilts and cushions created by hand with high quality fabrics, which can be customized with the name of the animal and the hotel logo. In addition to the courtesy kit, there may also be a beach towel and beauty products for the dog. In short, it is not just a ready room but something more.
We work with around eighty hotels in Italy, France and Switzerland. In 2022 the third partner arrived. We are growing little by little, for now each one keeps another job but the purpose is that at least one dedicates herself completely to Food for dogs. Many foreigners who have tried our services ask for these things to be sent to their home and we are working on this idea. And to think that everything was born in the shower!».
4. For parents who don’t give up on travelling
Her friends said to her: “But where do you want to go on holiday with three children? Now you can forget about travels!”. And from there Maria Vitali, with a doctorate in computer science and three children, rose to the challenge. «I realized that there aren’t many resources for those who want to leave with their offspring, and I also know many families who have given up travelling. Hence the idea of combining my computer experience and passion for travel for create Its4kids.
It is a different portal in which there are only structures that really know how to welcome this type of traveller, divided according to whether you are leaving with an infant, a small child, a teenager, for large families, pet free structures, for those suffering from intolerances, for single parents. The destinations are in Italy, Europe, even the rest of the world, from the Maldives to the United States, with the possibility of opting for luxury holidays, campsites, villages, residences. In recent years, also thanks to email marketing tools, newsletters, technology and social networks, I have created a virtuous circle, encouraging hotels to become authentic accommodation for families».
5. Cleaning without surprises for short-term rentals
“Cleaning? They are at the basis of hospitality, what guests notice most, especially after Covid which has also placed the emphasis on the need to sanitize the environments”. They are words of Lodovica Fuscothe creative mind of Maid for a daywhich offers professional cleaning and linen rental services, which can be booked online, aimed at the short-term rental market.
«It is a proprietary platform that is able to manage the logistics of interventions in a timely and efficient manner know in real time to the owners the state of cleaning in each house. The employees, with a high degree of professionalism and training, use an app to view the assignments and find out about the services booked by the customer and, at the end of the work performed, they attach photographs, allowing for an initial quality control. Promptly informing the owners allows, in fact, to intervene immediately if there is damage or maintenance to be carried out before the arrival of other guests. From 2018 to 2022, the growth of Maid for a day was constant despite the impact of the pandemic on the sector, establishing itself as a valid support for those who want outsource the cleaning and linen rental service of apartments to rent.
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