ITALY specialist Citalia has made its first serious venture outside its core destination with the launch of a dedicated programme to Spain.
Real Spain is targeted at the operator’s existing customers and has projected first year carryings of 12,000.
Citalia managing director Camillo de Simone predicted it would hit 45,000 sales – its current Italy capacity – within three years.
De Simone said the move is designed to give the business greater security and follows demand from customers to introduce a new destination.
“Although we have a city-break programme which contains a handful of non-Italian destinations, this launch is our first major move into another country,” he said.
“The consolidation has been so extensive that we thought we had to do something to protect ourselves and to increase volume. There is also a risk when you have just one destination.
“If something happens, your business could be in realtrouble. Even this year we noticed a drop in bookings during the Kosovo crisis even though Italy had nothing to do with what was happening.”
Spain, he said, was a natural expansion and has a similar culture and product mix as Italy.
Featured in the programme is Majorca, Minorca, Ibiza, Costa del Sol, Andalucia, Costa Blanca, Sitges, Catalonia and Tenerife. Around 50% is self-catering accommodation with hotels, villas and paradores also included.
De Simone said there is a gap in Spain for a quality operator.
“The Spanish are trying to attract the quality end of the market and want to move away from the perception that it is just a cheap mass-market destination,” he said.