En plein of Trentino in the business of team and fan retreats

While the summer retreat formula for football teams, active since the 1960s, has established itself over the years as a way to promote lesser-known and popular locations, today the formula shows some signs of evolution.

The major clubs, this year, have preferred to concentrate their pre-season preparation at home: thus, Lazio, for 17 years a guest of Auronzo (Belluno), will this year hold its training camp in Formello, and clubs such as Fiorentina, Milan and Roma will do the same. Partly because at the beginning of the preparation - with the football market in progress and the extra time off for players involved in the national team or in the finals of the European Cups - the teams are often incomplete. Partly because some clubs are now engaged, for the same marketing reasons, in long tours abroad.

This does not detract from the fact that the traditional retreat still brings satisfaction to mountain tourism operators. And of Trentino Alto Adige in particular, which this year took all the picks of the top clubs.

Of the 20 top-flight teams in next season's championship, no less than eight will be sweating it out in the high-altitude venues of the north-east: Bologna in Rio Pusteria (Bolzano), Cremonese in Val di Pejo (Trento), Genoa in Moena (Trento), Lecce in Bressanone (Bolzano), while Napoli return to Dimaro (Trento) before moving to Castel di Sangro (L'Aquila). And then Sassuolo, celebrating their return to the top division in Ronzone (Trento), Torino in Prato allo Stelvio (Bolzano) and Verona in Folgaria (Trento).

It is not just a question of football either: Trentino has historical and consolidated collaborations with the volleyball federations, which chooses Val di Fiemme - both the men's and women's Olympic champion teams will be here - and with basketball, which returns to Folgaria from 23 to 31 July with the Training Camp in Folgaria, which will be followed on 2 and 3 August by participation in the Trentino Basket Cup.

Rugby, fencing and climbing have also been seen in the past.

With companies such as Trentino marketing, in the case of the Autonomous Province, piloting the relations with the sports clubs: the return is made up of a collaboration that does not end at the retreat and continues during the football season with visibility of the territorial brand on the sidelines during matches and in the background of interviews at the end of the game, but also photo shoots with the champions. In organising events that target an audience linked to the team, the provincial agency aims to increase the effectiveness of an already targeted communication by strengthening it with the presence of the team testimonial. In fact, the contracts provide for each top team to invite four of its players to official organised events. In a broad sense, and looking at the medium-long term, the Trentino-Sport binomial is thus strengthened. The numbers of hotel occupancy rates where the champions arrive, after all, give reason to this strategy.