The Italian group Alpitour’s hotel ambitions

The primary Italian tour operator, Alpitour, is changing the name of its hotel division to VOI Hotels (Vera Ospitalità Italiana) with a goal to federate independent hotels through franchises and to multiply management contracts in Italy and abroad.

The name "Alpitour World Hotels & Resorts" is out. The first Italian tour-operator is playing the national card through its hotel division renamed Vera Ospitalità Italiana (True Italian Hospitality), with a goal to "become the Italian reference hotel brand in the mid-term," in the words of the president of the group Gabriele Burgio. Burgio is not unknown in the hotel world, CEO of NH Hoteles from 1999 to 2011 and head of the group Jolly Hotels from 2006 when it merged with NH.

To accompany this ambition in hospitality, Burgio recruited another European hospitality specialist, Arco Buijs, Dutch CEO of the group Steigenberger Hotels between 2010 and 2012. His job is to combine "professional rigor, quality and respect for traditions in hospitality with Italian warmth, courtesy, passion and cooking" to guarantee the difference.

The VOI Hotels division already has 14 management contracts, including 11 Italian and foreign resorts, in Madagascar and Maldives for example, and three urban hotels including the Donna Camilla Savelli in Rome. The declared goal is to grow the portfolio of management contracts at destinations that are familiar to Italian clientele and also to federate Italian properties seeking a sales network and management assistance through a "soft" franchise contract.

Franchising will provide control over the application of international comfort standards, as well as assistance for creating a web site, connection to the booking system with optimized electronic distribution and assistance for offline commercialization and marketing. VOI Hotels made a major investment in a new distribution platform connected to agencies in connection to Alpitour, as well as with other tour operators, and GDSs.