Dolce Vita is the promise of Aldiana‘s newly opened Club Calabria with Premium All Inclusive, just one and a half hours from Lamezia Terme Airport. Stephanie Kubik, Aldiana‘s Head of MICE, highlights the team building and exclusive rental options in April and late October. The 324-room property is closed from November to March. From summer 2020, it will offer direct access to the conference centre with a 600-seat auditorium and extra rooms.

Kubik is currently working on a new edition of the group and incentive brochures for all Aldiana Clubs with tie-in programmes “for groups of all sizes”. As a special service, package deals for groups are highlighted as an “added value for cost calculation and time management. In the future, we want to expand our network and communicate our advantages over conventional hotels to our customers,” points out the Head of MICE. This includes large entertainment teams in the clubs.

Since 2018, Aldiana’s Ampflwang Club in Austria, has been open all the year round. It is offering Full Board-Plus, 201 guest rooms, a 600-seat multipurpose hall, nine function rooms and a seminar terrace. Kubik recommends “teambuilding at Hausruckwald, executive training with horses, management seminars and kick-off meetings to ring in the New Year”.

From Italy we move on to the Baltic Sea resort of Damp in Schleswig-Holstein. “Our beach hall and Albatross beach terrace are very popular for events”, says Jörn Lederer, Head of Sales & Marketing. Thanks to external partners, Damp now also offers an escape room and “Viking Adventure Golf” for incentives in addition to Beach Olympics and arrow or archery tag. The high ropes course at Thingplatz, stand-up paddling and all kinds of water sports are further options. The Schleswig-Holstein division of Germany’s conservative CDU party also staged a closed conference in Damp in 2019. As a special highlight, Lederer singles out continuous programmes with childcare during meetings.

Confertainment, a concept that “successfully combines conferences with a tie-in entertainment programme”, is proudly promoted by Ronald Schwär. Small wonder – he is Head of Confertainment at Rust’s Europa-Park. The 4-star Superior Hotel Krønasår “with a Nordic ambience and Scandinavian cuisine” is a new opening that resembles a natural history museum. The theme hotel next to “Water World Rulantica”, slated to open on 28 November, boasts two function rooms for 260 and 16 people respectively. Schwär is pleased to announce that this will increase capacities for 5,000 guests to 30 rooms on 3,000 sqm. In addition, there are show and evening programmes as well as an in-house technical crew and Europa-Park’s own teams of craftsmen such as carpenters and gardeners.

Laura Drauschke, Sales Executive MICE of Center Parcs, also announces a new opening: Park Allgäu in Leutkirch, suitable for events with up to 5,000 people. With capa­cities for 5,000 overnight guests, it is ideal for exclusive rentals, says Drauschke. In addition, it boasts a Business Centre with 5 rooms, event spaces for tents and a Market Dome with 6 restaurants, 2 stages and 3,000 sqm of space. Other Center Parcs, such as Zandvoort, are being renovated. Premium sites are being added to Hochsauerland Park for 12 and 20 people respectively: “They offer enough space for in-house meetings,” enthuses Drauschke.

Club Med has opened a new 5 Trident Cefalù resort. Maria Zschage, Commercial Director B2B Trade and M&E, highlights the “ambitious change” with new resorts and renovations geared to 4 and 5 Trident resorts. The new “Red Dragon” room concept is being implemented this year in long-haul destinations Punta Cana/DomRep, and Cancun/Mexico. With its „worktainment“ concept, Club Med turns work at meetings and events into pleasure. The incentive trip of a direct sales company with 500 #HappyPartyLitePeople to Cefalù was a “huge success”.

“More than 400 groups come both to our Robinson Club Fleesensee and Club Cala Serena in Mallorca alone every year”, says Heinz Grobel, Head of Incentives and Meetings. New rooms are being added to Club Landskron in Austria. On top of that, Robinson is testing “an organiser app, including a planner with push messages and schedule updates that our MICE customers can use”. Club Ierapetra on Crete is joining the “Robinson Family” with two large function rooms in 2020.

This summer, Autostadt Wolfsburg will open its Hafen 1 theme event centre on the northern banks of its harbour. It offers capacities with harbour view for up to 1,400 people on 5,300 sqm with seminar spaces on three levels . The new building is intended to be the main venue of the Movimentos dance festival. “Hafen 1 is a milestone in the development of our corporate event business”, says Roland Clement, Chairman of Autostadt’s Executive Board.