According to the stories, the centrality of Fossano translates more into a centrifugal force than a centripetal force: people choose it because it is convenient, very convenient, to reach other places. He rarely chooses the city of the Acaja because he wants to stop and visit it, unless there is some event, large or small. In this case things change a lot.
This is what emerges from the testimonies we have collected from some hoteliers and B&B owners in Fossano: Davide Pagliano of the Dama hotel (40 rooms), Patrizia Barroero, one of the partners of the Romanisio hotel (45 rooms), Giardino dei tigli (55 rooms), Andrea Lombardi of the B&B Cascina Belmonte (5 rooms), Giacomo Totaro of Villa Laura and the Le Palme apartment (2 rooms and 1 apartment), Massimo Favole of La casa delle Favole (3 rooms), Ines Cottone of Torre dei Frati (3 rooms), Lorella Bergese of Fiori di Zucca (3 rooms). We asked them all the same questions: what type of customers choose their facility? What feedback on the city do they receive?
Regardless of the sleeping arrangements you choose, the clients of the facilities arrive in Fossano most of the time for work reasons: they can be top managers or workers, salespeople or specialized technicians and sometimes they stop for 10 consecutive days, sometimes a couple of days on a monthly or bimonthly basis, depending on whether they are following (or working on) a construction site, or have meetings and meetings with customers or companies.
We often intercept people “in transit” who – for example – are travelling from Spain to Germany – and need a few hours of rest before getting back into their cars.
Tourists
And then there are the tourists, many Italians (especially from northern and central Italy) and also many foreigners, Polish, French, Finnish, Swiss and German, Dutch… Why do they choose Fossano? Usually due to its central position, one of our prides, a strategic position that makes us choose it because we are in the center of the province and therefore from here it is easy and quick to go and visit “other” places: the Langhe – as easily predictable – does it especially between September and November when the fairs dedicated to wine and truffles take place; but Turin, Cuneo, Mondovì and the sanctuary of Vicoforte, Saluzzo and the valleys are also chosen. There are also those who stay for a whole week and come to visit (in the same day) Milan, Genoa and the aquarium, Florence.
The Fossano accommodation facilities fill up thanks to events that also take place a few km outside Fossano, the aforementioned events in the Alba area, as well as the Festa della vita promoted by the Cenacolo Community which brings numerous groups here who return every year to stay in Fossano.
Who chooses Fossano
As much as our hotels and B&Bs work, there are few customers who choose to come to Fossano because it is precisely in Fossano that they want to stay. Either they are friends and relatives of people who live in Fossano or they come because there is some event or demonstration planned. We work thanks, for example, to the exhibitors who arrive for the San Giovenale fair or Expoflora, we work above all thanks to sporting events – and it is not necessary to have a Giro d’Italia every year. We also work with events which to non-enthusiasts may seem “small”: thanks to tournaments, matches, open days, football, baseball, swimming, checkers, bowls, dance or other sporting disciplines, athletes, sometimes accompanied by their families, arrive in the city and in the city they stop. There are those who arrive in bicycle thanks to a cycle tourism circuit that is proposed by some institutions and associations and that also includes Fossano, there are those who come for the small animal market or because there is a gathering of those who have done the military in Fossano.
And this is also why the request from hoteliers to have an increasingly rich and varied calendar of proposals in the city emerges, even if not always explicitly stated. Because they are not only opportunities for visibility for Fossano itself, but concrete job opportunities for many.
Fossano seen by others
Regardless of the reason that pushed hotel and B&B guests to stay in the city of Acaja, it is always advisable to visit it: Viale Mellano, the Castle, the arcades, the bastion, the Old Village.
When they return, the opinions are quite similar: a very, very quiet city (unless you are here for the motorcycle rally, for example), but very pretty. A “gem” to discover for its views and from an architectural point of view. But a place where after half a day you don’t really know what to do. It is difficult for them to return saying “wow”, as happens with other cities and as happened – a couple of managers confided to us – when Mirabilia was there.
The catering
Where can I eat tonight? It’s one of the most classic questions for those who are in a city they don’t know… For those who dine in city restaurants the feedback is positive, but it seems to be common among tourists that the offer is not sufficiently varied, and among hoteliers that sometimes it is difficult to identify the most suitable place to recommend to a specific customer.
The suggestions
Some suggestions from the hoteliers, also born after chats with their customers: not only increase the number of initiatives and events, creating new ones, but work more on the visibility of Fossano which – it is undeniable – has enormous potential but which is visited too little, even only by those who live in Cuneo or Saluzzo and want to spend a Sunday away from home: they rarely choose Fossano. But perhaps by investing more in “advertising” for Fossano, hypothesizing a visit to the city with a guide who tells curiosities about its history, finding or creating “instagrammable” corners in which the name of Fossano is seen, one can have more opportunities for Fossano is chosen by tourists who want to visit…Fossano.
