Our History

 

Giroauto Travel was born from the experiences of Michelangelo Lurgi, who in 1987 began working in tourism as contract manager in Spain on behalf of an Italian Tour Operator at the age of 21.

 

After the experience gained in Spain, Lurgi continues its activity by providing services and advice to companies, consortia, associations. In the meantime he graduated in Economics and Commerce continuing his activity of tourism consulting.

 

In March 1995 he founded Giroauto Travel and became its CEO, a position he still holds today.

 

The company was founded with only one goal: to create the first incoming tour operator in the province of Salerno specialist for Campania.

 

The company, drawing on the experience gained by the CEO in the years 1993 and 1994, is oriented exclusively on international markets and in particular, on the Russian market becoming in a few years the most important tour operator of the region in terms of incoming tourism from Russia in the years 1995/1996/1997 and following.

 

In 1995 and 1996 the first line of charter aircraft in Campania with direct flights from Moscow to Naples was realized in collaboration with a Russian tour operator.

 

In 1995 Giroauto Travel designed and published the first incoming catalogue in Russian (Cyrillic) for the promotion and sale of Campania and the province of Salerno in Russia.

 

In 1995, Giroauto Travel designed and built the first Russian-language website that allowed online booking of accommodation and package tours exclusively for Russian travel agencies and tour operators.

In the same year he also began to prepare the first catalogue Campania in Italian language that has been distributed since 1995 in Italian travel agencies.

 

In 1996, after a few years of work on the Russian market and after participating in all the main fairs of the Russian and European market, the company at the specific request of the CIS of NOLA (wholesale shopping center) realizes in collaboration with a Russian tour operator the first line of CARGO charter aircraft for the transport of goods purchased in Campania by Russian buyers.

 

In parallel with the development of the Russian market and with the distribution on the Italian market, the company began in 1997 an incoming activity on the Israeli market mainly focused on the sale of Italy tours.

 

In the 90s there were many initiatives created by Giroauto Travel for the promotion of the province of Salerno and Campania, in particular: Lonjatur - Mediterranean Travel Market 1999, or the first world tourism exchange in Salerno with the participation of over 150 buyers from all over the world, an event that subsequently opened the way for similar initiatives throughout Southern Italy.

 

Other international initiatives organized by Giroauto Travel in Italy were: Salerno meets Russia, Salerno meets Ukraine, Saint Petersburg meets Salerno, Kiev meets Salerno.

 

In September 1998, the Russian market suffered a setback due to the bankruptcy of many banks and tour operators, creating considerable economic damage to Giroauto Travel. Thanks to the diversification of the product adopted over the years, Giroauto Travel is able to recover.

 

For non-European markets, Giroauto Travel has organized, in collaboration with the Chamber of Commerce of Salerno, the European initiative entitled GLOBUS China that in May 1999 brought the entrepreneurs of Salerno to China with the organization of 3 workshops in Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong, China.

 

In 1999, an incoming activity from China was undertaken, but it stopped almost immediately due to problems related to obtaining visas for tourists and illegal immigration

 

Meanwhile, in the years 1997, 1998, 1999,  the CEO of Giroauto Michelangelo Lurgi follows a series of specialization courses and a post-graduate course in Tourist Space Management from which he intuits the need to create a structured territorial offer.

In 2000 he began working with the Swiss market and thanks to the collaboration with a Swiss tour operator was born the first line of charter aircraft Basel - Zurich - Naples.

 

In 2000, taking into account the experience gained in the chartering of aircraft by Giroauto Travel, Salerno Airport entrusts advice to the CEO of Giroauto Travel to represent the consortium with Italian and foreign airlines, in order to define the first commercial relations for the development of the Airport.

 

In 2001 Giroauto Travel began working with Japanese operators and in September 2001 it left for the national mission of Italian entrepreneurs in Japan, 7 days after the attack on the Twin Towers in New York.

 

From September 2001 to May 2002 the entire world tourist market, after the attack on the Twin Towers, suffered a setback such as to create enormous difficulties for the foreign incoming activities of Giroauto Travel.

 

The tour operator is hit by a second corporate crisis, after a little more than two years from the first, which forces him to review the entire strategy and his business model because it is based almost entirely on incoming from abroad.

 

Giroauto Travel sees only one escape from the crisis of international tourism: the creation of new tourist proposals to be organized in the territories and to be proposed on the Italian and foreign markets. For this reason, the CEO of Giroauto Travel accepts, in 2001, advice aimed at the creation and launch of the first tourist district of Campania: the Tourist District "I Picentini" realized in an area of the Province of Salerno.

 

In 2002, continuing with its presence on the Russian market, Giroauto Travel, in collaboration with an Italian tour operator and two Russians, created the first line of charter aircraft from Saint Petersburg to Naples.

 

Since 2002, Giroauto Travel has been focusing on the Italian market to make up for the blockade of foreign arrivals and to diversify country risk

 

In the years to follow, the tour operator participates more and more to the main European and Italian tourist events to propose its offer guaranteeing a generated turnover also on the Italian market.

 

Thanks to the experience gained over the years participating in the main world tourism fairs, in 2003 the CEO of Giroauto Travel published the book entitled: Foreign Markets published by Nardini Editore in Florence.

 

In 2004 Giroauto Travel activated a network of web portals for the promotion and marketing of some tourist towns in Campania with the Buyport brand.

 

In 2004 La Giroauto Travel created with the brand Buyport the first credit card begged with corporate brand in Italy for the purchase by travel agencies of package tours offered in the portal Buyport.

 

Since 2008 Lurgi participates in a high-level training course for tourism managers organized by Confindustria in collaboration with Federmanager and Fondirigenti, for the duration of 3 years from which a network and territorial development project is born.

 

In 2012 Giroauto Travel created, after the experiences gained from the launch of the portal Buyport in 2004, Buyport Travel btob portal in 7 languages for travel agencies and tour operators. The Italian and foreign travel agencies can buy hotels, flights, excursions, dinners, car transfers, tickets and more, constructing in a dynamic and autonomous way their tourist package to offer the customer.

 

Giroauto Travel, continuing its incoming activity, in 2012 is the promoter of a project of aggregation between companies in Campania entitled Let’s Network the Territory, Giroauto Travel has changed its business model since 2012 and is beginning to reshape itself to become DMO.

 

From that initiative, after two years of work, conferences, thematic meetings and presentation meetings throughout Southern Italy, a network of companies is established with entrepreneurs from the regions of Calabria, Campania, Basilicata and Puglia.

 

In May 2014, Giroauto Travel together with the entrepreneurs of Southern Italy, formed the Southern Destination Network, becoming its leader and Michelangelo Lurgi became its president.

Today, Giroauto Travel is the only entity in Italy to have created a network of companies, a development model and 3 territorial associations that have created three destinations with about 1000 members.

 

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By way of example, some of the tourist fairs attended by Giroauto Travel

 

  • WTM ( World Travel Market International Tourism Exchange ) London
  • BIT ( International Tourism Exchange ) Milan
  • TTG ( Borsa del Turismo Italiano ) Rimini
  • INWETEX ( Russian Tourism Exchange ) Saint Petersburg
  • TRAVEL TRADE ( German Tourism Exchange ) Frankfurt
  • NEKERMANN ( Meetings WORK SHOP with the German Tour Operator ) Frankfurt
  • MITT ( Russian International Tourism Exchange ) Moscow
  • LEISURE ( Russian Winter Tourism Exchange ) Moscow
  • CIS ( Russian Tourism Exchange ) Saint Petersburg
  • REGIONTOUR ( Czech Tourism Exchange) Brno.
  • INTOURFEST ( Russian Tourism Exchange ) Saint Petersburg
  • ITINERA ( International Religious Tourism Exchange)
  • FITUR ( Spanish International Tourism Exchange) Madrid
  • BMT ( Mediterranean Tourism Exchange) Naples
  • FOIRE DE PARIS ( French International Tourism Exchange) Paris
  • TRAVEL UKRAINE ( Ukrainian International Tourism Exchange) Kiev
  • BTC ( Congress Tourism Exchange) Florence
  • BTU ( Umbrian Tourism Exchange) Perugia
  • BMTA ( Mediterranean Archaeological Tourism Exchange) Paestum
  • LONJATUR ( Touring Tourism Exchange ) Vigo.
  • ITB ( German International Tourism Exchange ) Berlin
  • UITT ( Ukrainian International Tourism Exchange ) Kiev
  • ART & CITIES ( Borsa delle 100 città d'arte ) Ferrara
  • BORSA DEL TURISMO DEL MARE ( international exchange ) Pesaro
  • GLOBE ( International Tourism Exchange ) Rome
  • TTI (Italian Tourism Exchange) Rimini
  • BTS ( Sport Tourism Exchange) Montecatini
  • BTL (Portuguese Tourism Exchange) Lisbon
  • IT Warsaw ( Polish Tourism Exchange) Warsaw.

 

As an indication we highlight some of the foreign missions and work shop in which Giroauto Travel participated

 

 

  • Paestum (meeting Russian operators) organized CCIAA Salerno
  • Casablanca, Agadir, Marrakech (meeting Moroccan operators) organized TO Maracco
  • Sorrento (meeting Spanish operators) organized Fiavet Campania
  • Beijing (Chinese operators meeting) organized EC project Globus
  • Hong Kong (Chinese operators meeting) organized EC project Globus
  • Shanghai (Chinese operators meeting) organized CE project Globus
  • Milan (meeting with Lombard operators) organized Lombardy Region
  • New York (meeting with American operators) organized ENIT
  • Washington (meeting of American tourist and commercial operators) organized NIAF
  • Palinuro (meeting with national and international operators) organized CCIAA Salerno.
  • Kuwait City (Arab operators meeting) organized by the Government of Kuwait city
  • Tokyo (meeting with Japanese operators) Union Camere Campania
  • Paestum (meeting Spanish operators) organized Union Rooms Campania
  • Salerno (meeting with international operators) organized CCIAA Salerno
  • Madrid (meeting Spanish operators) organized Union Rooms Campania
  • Naples (Chinese operators meeting) organized Union Rooms Campania
  • Lugano (technical meeting and Swiss tourism consultants) organized by Confindustria Roma.
  • Paris (meeting French operators) organized CCIAA Salerno.
  • Stockholm (meeting Swedish operators) organized Confindustria Salerno
  • Bethlehem and Jerusalem (meeting with Palestinian operators for the creation and support of the project of the European community of enhancement of the Mediterranean villages) organized by the European Community.

 

 

Rete Destinazione Sud is a network of companies consisting of tour operators, travel agencies, accommodation facilities, consulting and information technology companies, restaurateurs, transport companies, business networks and consortia of Southern Italy.

 

The network was born as a result of the project "I Turismi", promoted by Fondirigenti, Federturismo, Confindustria, the Associations of Industrialists and Executives of Potenza, Matera, Cosenza, Lecce, Salerno, Siracusa, and Nord Sardegna, and with the patronage of the Italian National Commission for UNESCO. The project aimed to create the conditions for the competitiveness of Southern Italy and was developed from 2007 to 2011 in 12,500 hours of training, assistance, distance training, site visits in Italy and abroad, and experimentation on the job.

 

At the end of the project, a group of entrepreneurs who had participated in the initiative worked to encourage its continuation and enhance the results it had produced.  The first step is made on 30 October 2012 in Salerno, at the headquarters of Confindustria, with the presentation of a proposal for aggregation entitled "Let’s Network the Territory" by the Giroauto Travel of Salerno (Tour Operator).

 

In the two-year period 2012-2013 a series of meetings between entrepreneurs from Southern Italy is then held, with the aim of verifying the conditions for the creation of a unique development project for the South, and on 28 November 2013 a two-day event on tourism is conceived and organized entitled "Destination South - Analysis and design for tourism".

 

 

 

On the strength of the results obtained with this last event, a comparison opens between the entrepreneurs who took part and those who had participated in the initiative of October 30, 2012 "Let’s Network the Territory".  The result is a multi-regional aggregation project that sets programs and objectives to kick off the comparison with all the entrepreneurs of southern Italy.

 

 

The analyses and evaluations favored by this experience, made of over 40 meetings of presentation, organized by dr. Michelangelo Lurgi throughout Southern Italy (Salerno, Cosenza, Bari, Taranto, Cagliari, Olbia, Potenza, Matera, Grottaglie, etc.), lead to the birth of the "Rete Destinazione Sud" in May 2014, with notarial deed in the Confindustria headquarters in Salerno. The Network is officially presented at the National Press Conference on 3 July 2014 at the Confindustria headquarters in Rome.

 

On November 6, 2019 in Salerno, Rete Destinazione Sud S.r.l. Startup Innovativa was established. The startup was created to enhance, promote and market in an integrated way on national and international markets, territories, companies and products of Southern Italy.

 

The project, based on the Destinazione model conceived by Michelangelo Lurgi, provides for the integration of the territorial offer in Destination Marketplace in which local actors become active protagonists of its development and promotion and marketing activities both online and offline.