Fina's Own Travel Experience

Traveling with the Winds since 2007

Fina Travels founder Giulio Olivieri began his own journey in September 2007. His transformational travel experience was exactly a Kitesurfing course. He took it in Colico, just over an hour away from where he lived in Lugano. At that time, Giulio worked in the international corporate services sector with Fina Group (fina-group.com).

Lugano
Lugano, Switzerland

Since that moment, the changing process provoked by this new passion ended up taking him to travel to kite spots all around the world

Initial kite trips were one or two weeks long for his own Kiteboarding progression. Then, he took his Instructor license in 2011 with the International Kiteboarding Organization (IKO) in Tarifa, Spain. After which he has been traveling for entire winter and summer teaching seasons.

Tarifa 2011
Los Lances, Tarifa 2011

Transmitting his passion since 2011

The first seasons as an instructor in Vietnam and Brazil had a focus on the teaching aspect, that was a new skill to be learnt in Giulio’s professional life. 

Sunset in Jericoacoara
Sunset in Jericoacoara, Brazil 2012

At the same time, he closely collaborated with the managers of all schools worked at. The idea was that of eventually getting into the management of Kitesurfing schools.

Since the beginning of this instructor and later managing instructor profession, his living has been dependent on wind and weather conditions. Thus his greater connection with Nature..

Like for all kiteboarders, wind maps indicated the different spots where to plan for the scheduling of the seasons. As a consequence, his life somehow came to a syncronisation with the cycles of windy seasons.

In transition times it was a good occasion to get back to Lugano which remained his base at heart. Those were moments of reflection, about what to do and where to go next.

The alternation of seasons and pauses in different types of countries and cultures was an experience that tought him many lessons about the essentials for a living, and maximization of personal enrichment

Serving as an Incoming Operator since 2014

In May 2014 Giulio began collaborating with French travel agencies acting as a local incoming operator. That was started in order to bring much needed clients to the schools he was working in, in Rhodes (Greece), then Sao Miguel do Gostoso (Brazil), and finally Sardinia (Italy).

Kiteboarding still remains an excitement for his own progression and for seeing students turn into riders and even into instructors!

School in Rhodes
Kite school in Rhodes, Greece 2014

But apart from the Kite experience, Giulio has felt the enrichment at a personal level from discovering new countries and living in their economic systems and local cultures

That initial Kitesurfing course triggered a re-balancing process in all of his lifestyle that should be, we believe, a constant element in our lives. New challenges and difficult situations help us build resilience by strengthening us and teaching us the art of adapting.

But these experiences do not need to be so extreme in nature to become transformational. For example other big changers for Giulio were Salsa and Tango Dancing classes.. which we will also offer as Experiences for social connection and to the music as well.

Affiliation to an Italian network Travel Agencies in 2021

Giulio had to stop traveling in the winters since 2018 for several reasons, but reorganized his life among other things with his old mountain bike he was using during the summers as a kid. And to celebrate the 30 years since he first rode the bike from Torino to the Valli di Lanzo (70km and Alt. 1,050 mt), he made the same trip, with that same bike: 

Giulio in Valli di Lanzo
Giulio with his old mountain bike in Valli di Lanzo 2020

Although a bit of an extreme change in his case, this is the kind of travel experience that he would like to offer his fellow travellers through Fina Travels.

In March of 2021 got an affiliation with Alltrade Tourism, an Italian network of Travel Agencies and Tour Operators to embark in yet another adventure. This time, deeper in the Tourism sector which is experiencing a transformation with the global pandemic and all its consequences.

More details on our background at Fina Group – History and Philosophy (fina-group.com)

We look forward to the beginning of your journey.

Mission

Offer travel experiences that can trigger a transformational process for personal growth, but also contribute to a sustainable local development for the destinations at an environmental, economic, and social level.

Vision

The global tourism industry has an enormous potential to contribute to the much needed switch from a linear to a circular economy. In this sense, International cultural exchange can facilitate the understanding and diffusion of this transformational process.

Principles