A successful training camp does not begin when the team arrives. It begins with selecting the right hotels, inspecting the sports facilities, coordinating with our partners and asking which destination truly meets the needs of a team.
That is exactly why regular business trips are a central part of our work at SOCCATOURS. Our Product & Sales Managers regularly travel in person to the countries they are responsible for. They visit existing partners, inspect new hotels and sports facilities, negotiate allotments and conditions for the upcoming season and gain a detailed impression of the destinations on site.
Because only those who really know the hotels, pitches, routes, processes and local contacts can provide teams with truly well-founded advice.
Personally on Site: Quality Comes from Close Contact
Over the past few weeks, our SOCCATOURS team has been on the road in several regions, including Lake Garda, South Tyrol and Trentino. Dominik and Valerie travelled through the region for several days together with our SOCCATOURS Italy team: Matteo, Nicola and Anna.
The agenda included numerous hotel visits, meetings with existing partners, inspections of new accommodation options and assessments of both current and potential football pitches.
The focus was clearly on the quality of our product portfolio: Which hotels are still the best fit for our teams? Where can we secure allotments? What conditions are possible for the following year? And which new locations could be a valuable addition to our portfolio?
These are questions that are best answered directly on site.
Maintaining Existing Partnerships, Exploring New Opportunities
Personal exchange with our hotel and pitch partners is an important part of every business trip. Many of our partnerships have been in place for years. That is precisely why it is important to us to maintain regular contact and not rely solely on email or phone calls.
Direct communication on site helps us assess current developments more accurately. We can see whether hotels have been renovated, how processes have changed, which capacities are available and whether an accommodation still meets the requirements of our teams.
At the same time, we use these trips to get to know new hotels and sports facilities. After all, our aim is to continuously develop and improve our portfolio. Not every new accommodation automatically fits SOCCATOURS. What matters is whether the overall package, location, quality, sports infrastructure and value for money meet our customers’ expectations.
How Our Customers Benefit
For teams, choosing the right training camp is often a complex decision. In addition to the budget, many other factors play an important role: pitch quality, distance between the hotel and sports facility, catering, room standards, training times and supporting programme.
Thanks to our regular business trips, we can assess these factors more precisely and provide more targeted advice. Our Product & Sales Managers do not just know which destination looks good on paper. They also know what a location actually feels like, how the routes work on site, which hotels are particularly suitable for certain team sizes and which partners are reliably prepared for the needs of football teams.
That makes a crucial difference. We are not simply talking about offers we know from databases. We are talking about hotels and sports facilities that we have seen and inspected ourselves.
Of course, such trips also involve long days, many appointments and numerous conversations. At the same time, it is precisely this that creates the closeness and trust that are so important for successful training camps. Shared dinners with partners or internal team discussions also help deepen cooperation and further improve processes.
In the end, it is above all our customers who benefit: through well-founded advice, suitable offers and a portfolio that does not grow by chance, but is carefully reviewed and deliberately developed.
Lake Garda, South Tyrol and Trentino: New Impressions for the Coming Season
The most recent trip took our team through northern Italy for several days. In addition to stops around Lake Garda, South Tyrol and Trentino were also on the itinerary.
South Tyrol in particular is an exciting topic for SOCCATOURS in the coming years. Our portfolio there is not yet as extensive as in other regions, but we aim to develop it in a targeted way. Business trips help us realistically assess potential and only add new offers if they meet our quality standards.
We also gained valuable impressions in Trentino. The region offers interesting opportunities that we will continue to examine and evaluate with a view to future training camps.
Further Trips to the Czech Republic, Croatia, Turkey and More
Following the trip through northern Italy, the next business trips are already planned. Our team will soon be heading to the Czech Republic, Croatia and Turkey — with a similar programme and the same objective: to visit existing partners, inspect new hotels and sports facilities and lay the foundation for strong training camp offers for the upcoming season.
Further trips to Spain and Slovenia will also follow in July. There, too, the aim is to deepen our local knowledge, maintain existing partnerships and evaluate new opportunities for our teams.
This is exactly what sets SOCCATOURS apart: We want to know what we are talking about. We want to know our destinations. And we want to offer our teams training camps that truly match their requirements.
Conclusion: Good Advice Requires Genuine Local Knowledge
Business trips are far more than organisational appointments for SOCCATOURS. They are a central part of our daily work and one of the key reasons why we can advise teams so individually and reliably.
Through close contact with our partners, regular on-site visits and the continuous review of our portfolio, we create the basis for training camps that impress from a sporting, organisational and quality perspective.
Or to put it simply: The better we know our destinations, the better we can find the right training camp for every team.
