There’s no discounting the fact that Italy’s star continues to rise as one of the most popular international destinations each and every year. Which has been the case for quite some time.
In 2019, the destination experienced its best year ever, with arrivals rising to 64.8 million, the Italian Tourism Board said. But those stellar arrivals’ numbers came to an abrupt halt in March 2020 with the onset of the pandemic
We caught up with Andrea Grisdale, CEO and founder of IC Bellagio, a Lake Como-based destination management company (DSM), whom I interviewed for a TravelPulse story in February 2020, right before the world shut down.
In the current interview, Grisdale discusses what life was like from a personal and professional perspective during and after the pandemic.
What was the atmosphere was like in Italy during the pandemic?
Life in general during the pandemic can only be described as surreal. You may remember that IC Bellagio chose to be very active from the beginning of that period, as the one thing that was scaring people the most was not knowing what was happening.
We used social media to share the news that we were hearing in Italy and also what life was like for us in general – and of course, for me, it was important to keep the dream of Italy alive – as the pandemic had to end sooner or later!
Grisdale recalls walking through the virtually empty Vatican Museums during the pandemic. (Source: Trafalgar)
We did have the opportunity to leave our towns and travel throughout Italy, visiting empty Piazzas, seeing the main train station in Milan with so few people, and walking through the almost-empty Vatican Museums – it was a strange feeling.
What was the reaction to the pandemic from the general public?
Everyone was just trying to get through it the best way they knew how. One of the things that Italians are well known for is being creative – and I can assure you even during these hard times we saw so much creativity with people keeping their businesses going, helping others less fortunate and of course finding ways to take care of their staff and families.
Once bars and restaurants were able to open for takeaways – this was something they jumped on immediately. I can still remember the taste of the first fresh brioche that we enjoyed after so long away from our favorite local Pasticceria, and the homemade gelato and the pizza from our favorite pizzeria.
We definitely got creative at home with cooking competitions with my family in the UK online – thank goodness for Zoom! – and I came up with some new recipes. Like so many throughout the country, we emptied our home wine cellars and I learned to drink Grappa too!
How has Italy changed in the aftermath of the pandemic?
I believe the heart and soul of the country and its genuinely warm hospitality, for which Italy is known is still know, is maybe even a little deeper than before. The creativity that we found during the pandemic in doing things differently has certainly continued, and I think people have learned that doing things at a slower pace has its advantages – less is more.
Once travel came back, did have more business than you could handle?
The biggest challenge for us as a company was when the borders opened with a lack of advance warning. One thing that I did from the beginning of the pandemic was keep 11 key people on my team working full time. This was not easy and was aided by the great support of our government. And of course we called our team members back very quicky, too. Did we except such a huge surge? No. Did we survive and do the best job could? Yes.
How did you manage the onslaught of business from your travel advisor partners?
We put our people first. We continued our policy of having a 100 percent hybrid working arrangement, allowing our team to choose where they preferred to work, which made things as comfortable as possible for them, and supported them in their work and policies.
One of the toughest decisions I ever made, which was necessary to get us through that 2022/2023 period, was to stop offering individual services and work only with bookings that with 10,000 Euro minimums. While it was not easy, it was necessary considering supply and demand issues.
Post pandemic, IC Bellagio initially paused bookings on such attractions as the Colosseum, which due to overcrowding, would not provide clients with the “best of experiences that they deserved and that we had built our reputation on,” Grisdale said. (Source: The Colosseum)
We also made the tough decision to do stop sales during this period in certain cases. For example, when we could only get availability at the Colosseum at 2 pm in the middle of July, we would not have been giving our clients the best of experiences that they deserved and that we had built our reputation on.
How has your business fared since the pandemic?
We have been doing very well since the pandemic and are certainly working much more efficiently than what we did pre pandemic. We learned a lot. The important thing now is not to go backwards. As with all challenges, we saw the pandemic as an opportunity – an opportunity to do better, and we had the time to truly look at what we did and how we did it. 2022 and 2023 were huge years regarding volume of business.
This year we have seen less business, and it’s once again been an opportunity to regroup and tweak what needed to be tweaked to enable us to continuously improve who we are and what we do moving forward.
What does the future like for tourism in Italy?
I believe the future looks very bright. I believe that we will see much more interest in slow season travel – the quieter low-season months – when there are fewer people. I also believe travelers will be more open to exploring destinations throughout Italy that are not on everyone’s radar and enjoy being the first to experience regions that today are not so well known. Enjoying slower and more authentic experiences with more access to local people will become increasingly more popular.
At the end of the day, no one comes to Italy to find what they have back home.
For the latest travel news, updates and deals, subscribe to the daily TravelPulse newsletter.
Topics From This Article to Explore
