Season kicks off, Lake Garda towards a full house for Easter

04 April 2023

Thanks to Vinitaly and the imminent holidays, things are booming in the lakeside villages. Germans have arrived, as well as Dutch, Danish and Swiss. De Beni: 'There is 90% occupancy and the last minute is still missing' The new tourist season on the Olive Riviera officially began on 1 April. Accomplice to Vinitaly and the imminent Easter holidays, it is heading towards a full house in the hotel facilities of the eight lakeside towns that overlook the Veronese shore of Italy's largest lake. 
Clear signs can be seen in the explosion of vehicular traffic on the Gardesana road, but also in the immediate hinterland with more and more cars with German plates. Not only that. It is not uncommon to come across Dutch, Danish and Swiss cars. 
In Malcesine, the doors are open for the castle and cable car, where it is going swimmingly. The president of the Malcesine Hoteliers' Association Vittorio Mazzoldi is enthusiastic. "Already on the last weekend in March, thanks to the organised marathon, we registered a sell-out. Since yesterday we have also added the opening of the Malcesine castle and the cable car that connects with the 1,760-metre Tratto Spino on Mount Baldo. Two attractors of tourists of great value to our area,' continues Mazzoldi, owner of two hotels: the 'Baia Verde' in Val di Sogno and the 'Venezia' in Viale Roma in the town centre. "Until Easter Sunday in Malcesine we are at full capacity and then we expect the downturn to start again with the 25 April and 1 May long weekends. The numbers are very comforting in view of the future, but even now even finding a free parking space is not easy". 
Full house in Bardolino. In the middle of the lake, the 'Solho Hotel', which opened yesterday, is sold out. "It is immediately a busy week, thanks also to Vinitaly with customers staying until Wednesday. Then there will be the changing of the guard with tourists arriving on Lake Garda for the Easter holidays. On Thursdays, the Germans switch off their computers and travel down from the Brenner Pass to their beloved Gardasee. This is a great omen," confirms the owner of the four-star superior Marta Ferrari. "The predictions we had made in recent weeks have come true," intervenes the president of Federalberghi Garda Veneto Ivan De Beni. "We are not sold out, but we are touching 90% occupancy, which could be exceeded with last minute bookings. We are very satisfied because we are finally and definitively reaching the occupancy levels we were used to in this period, also thanks to Vinitaly. Overall, the season is looking good, even if definitive numbers will only be given later, but the approach is very good and the destination is enjoying success," explains the re-elected president of the category, which includes about four hundred facilities on the Riviera degli Olivi. 
Guaranteed bathing: An observatory that allows him to make overall evaluations, but also to highlight possible smear campaigns. "The low Lake Garda does not worry us because bathing is guaranteed and it is possible to spend one's holiday in complete serenity," he emphasises. "The hotel facilities do not have any kind of water supply problem. People often confuse the problem of drought and the water emergency for agriculture with that of the tourism sector. Unfortunately, some people ride on terrorist-like information. It's all lies,' enthuses De Beni, who then places the emphasis on personnel. "Some more and some less still have problems finding human resources. Clearly less than last year, but there are hotel and catering facilities that have not yet completed their ranks due to low numbers. Lastly, there is the regrettable phenomenon, especially in the catering industry, of 'stealing' staff among colleagues. A problem, the latter, that I feel is also present in Verona and in many parts of Italy'. Unlike the hotel sector in the open-air accommodation facilities, the bulk of arrivals are expected from mid-week onwards. "The forecasts are good even if I do not have any objective data in hand at the moment. There is no shortage of movement on the roads and as always much will also depend on the weather factor," says Giovanni Bernini, president of Assogardacamping, an association affiliated with Faita Veneto that brings together owners of campsites and open-air tourist accommodation complexes in the province of Verona: more than forty facilities out of about sixty present on Lake Garda. (L'Arena Territori - 2 aprile 2023 - https://www.larena.it/territorio-veronese/garda-baldo/lago-garda-tutto-esaurito-pasqua-1.9985197)