What is the Italian destination that allows a tourism player to generate a turnover of over 86 million euros with only four hotels? The answer can only be one: Sardinia.
More precisely, a Sardinian resort, the one that has always been synonymous with glamour holidays: the Costa Smeralda. Further narrowing the zoom, we arrive at the heart of the most exclusive tourism in Italy, that village in Moorish style born just over 50 years ago from an intuition of Karim Aga Khan: Porto Cervo.
This is the epicentre of the “smeraldina” galaxy, the hub of the most important social events, and it is here that the famous hotels all have one owner:
the Smeralda Holding, the Italian company whose sole shareholder is Qatar Holding, the operating arm of Qia, one of the most important sovereign funds in the world.
“Golden season”
Its are the four super-exclusive hotels that catalyze the attention of international VIPs: the Cala di Volpe, the Romazzino, the Pitrizza and the Cervo. And when we ask the administrator of Smeralda Holding, Mario Ferraro, to outline the budget 2016, does not use half terms:
“It was an extraordinary tourist season,” he says with satisfaction. A definition supported by the numbers: Smeralda Holding has closed the year with a total of 86.4 million euros in revenues, equal to 5.5 percent more than the previous year.
Longer holidays
Merit, explains Ferraro, of the English and American markets that, “together with the Italian one, are the most important and they have another interesting feature:
the guests stay with us for a long time, with an average of at least 5-6 days in the resorts, but in many cases even more “.
The great appeal of Sardinia is due, it is true, to the difficulties of the competitors of the area, but not only:
in fact, among the big spenders, now more than ever there is a flashback for the glamour and lifestyle holiday, of which the Costa Smeralda is the emblem par excellence. Just think that, crossing the data Marinetraffic.com and those of Forbes, it turns out that here, in the days of August, were anchored yachts for an estimated value of 3 billion euros and whose owners have a total assets of 100 billion dollars. Ferraro prefers not to say who his VIP clients are, in the name of a privacy he absolutely wants to protect, but it is not difficult to find out. In fact, it is easy to assume that, in addition to hotel guests, at least part of the owners of the dozens of yachts have chosen the Cala di Volpe for their dinners on the mainland, and then move with their boats, maybe in the direction of the Maddalena archipelago.
Among the names of the superVIP present last summer in Sardinia was Mohammed Al-Fayed, the former owner of Harrods and father of Dodi, the last companion of Lady D; but also Leonardo Del Vecchio, founder of Luxottica, the second richest man in Italy, or the less famous Ernesto Bertarelli, the Italian/Swiss who with his personal assets of 10.6 billion dollars he is the richest man with a Swiss passport.
Loyal customers
But the strength of Smeralda Holding, the one that keeps Ferraro confident for the future, is the hard core of repeaters. “Ours – explains the administrator. – it’s a
customer faithful to the destination, which returns from year to year, very attentive to the quality of service and natural beauty of the place “.
This is accompanied by the added value of the staff: “We – Ferraro specifies – the turnover is only 3 percent and the hotel becomes a sort of second home for the customer. This creates a climate of familiarity, much appreciated, in which the staff already knows and anticipates what the customer wants “.
And it is precisely in this perspective that the business plan of Smeralda Holding proceeds:
“The must are two – Ferraro specifies: product diversification and innovation. For the medium term we aim to enrich the hotel offer, creating a spa, a cooking school and other services, renewing the food and beverage proposal and enhancing existing sports facilities “. The aim is to involve the young target “through targeted partnerships and the creation of events involving music, art and sport”.
About the latter among the company’s projects there is also the redevelopment of the Cervo Tennis Club: “From a simple tennis club – anticipates Ferraro – we want to propose it as a key destination, independent of the Costa Smeralda, as a pole for sports activities and events, where you will also find spaces dedicated to catering “.
of Stefania Galvan