On October 15, 2026, Lia Dal Cappello, Project Manager for the Open Air sector at HBenchmark, presented the speech “Trend 2026, scenarios 2027 and real-time strategies: the evolutions of the HBenchmark Project for Faita” to FAITA Agorà at InOut Expo 2026 in Rimini. The event was promoted by FAITA Federcamping at InOut Expo 2026 in Rimini.

Strategies decided for the current season

The speech began with two questions to the audience: how many establishments have changed their prices, availability, or promotional activities during the season, and on what data did they base these decisions.

Lia then retraced the evolution of the Open Air market. The starting point is a relatively stable phase, with anticipated bookings and repetitive behaviors. Then came the years of the pandemic and finally a 2026 season marked by:

• decisions that are increasingly last-minute;
• less predictable foreign markets;
• increase in the cost of living and fuel prices;
• international conflicts.

What the 2026 season taught us

The analysis of the season by the national FAITA champion highlighted some elements useful for planning:

• The market does not move in unison: different territories have different trends and markets of origin, and knowing your own territory counts more than the national average;
• September is no longer the low season;
• Prices do not always follow employment: in some periods the average revenue has remained low despite high levels of employment;
• Alongside Germany, other foreign markets emerge, including Denmark, Poland, the Czech Republic, Belgium, Ireland and the United Kingdom.

2027 begins today

The bookings already acquired for the next season allow us to observe occupancy, demand pressure and the nationality of the guests from now on. From here we can understand which territories are accelerating, which dates are going better and where the market accepts tariff increases.

Lia summarized the difference with an image. Traditional management is like driving while looking in the rearview mirror, which only shows the road that has already been traveled. The data-driven management works like a navigator, which indicates where you are, what is happening in front of you, and which road is best to take.

The developments of the HB/OpenAir project

HB/OpenAir is the result of the partnership between HBenchmark and FAITA Federcamping. The goal is to create a national observatory of Open Air based on real booking data, shared in an anonymous and aggregated form.

The project has two types of users:

• The participating entities use it to compare themselves with the market, monitor their performance and support tariff choices;
• FAITA delegations use it to analyze the local market and promote the destination.

The next step is Artificial Intelligence: AI agents that read occupancy, pickup, and pricing data to signal situations where it makes sense to intervene on rates.

The project is open to new members

Each territory has its own dynamics, so the value of the data increases with the number of structures that share them: more subscriptions mean more representative local benchmarks for everyone.