Outgoing tourism demand will moderate in 2009

Even if the sales for New Year’s Eve don’t put up to the expectations, the Romanian tour-operators are already preparing touristic offers for the next year.  The “coordinates” of the touristic year that starts in 2009 consist in inserting new charter flights, the decrease of price to some worldwide touristic services (due to the decrease in demand generated by the economic crisis) and aggressive promotion of some destinations. So the Romanians will be able to choose among the new charter flights to Santorini, Mykonos, Chefalonia, new products being also prepared for destinations such as Singapore, France or Austria.

The demand for worldwide packages won’t record anymore the advance of 30% registered this year. When we refer to new service packages, there must be mentioned the new charter flights to the Greek isles Santorini, Mikonos and Chefalonia. “Beside the traditional charter flights, such as Mallorca, Barcelona, Crete, Rhodes and Antalya, in 2009 we’ll offer to our clients charter holidays in Azore, Corsica, Sardinia, Sicilia, Menorca and Madeira”, Cristina Irimia, marketing manager at JInfotours states. The tour-operator also prepares touristic packages for the Belize isles, and also for vacations to the French castles.  
 

“The charter to Santorini, which we plan to launch in 2009 along the destinations that will be an attraction for the young groups: Mykonos and Paros, represent a novelty that will offer to our customers”, Cristian Pandel, manager at Christian Tour, states. If Santorini is considered a destination recommended especially to the ones that want a romantic place where to spend their honeymoon, Mykonos is a perfect location for the ones that prefer the nightlife and the nautical sports. “The tourists that book tickets in this period benefit of discounts amounted to 15%,“ Cristian Pandel adds. Moreover, Greece will also benefit of an aggressive promotion on the Romanian market, due to the fact that the Greek authorities decided to set up a tourism office to Bucharest.

“Of our information, in the summer season 2009, there will be also inaugurated charter flights to Chefalonia”, Traian Badulescu, spokesman of the National Association of Travel Agencies (ANAT) states. He appreciates that the increase of the offers for touristic service packages for the resorts in Austria, Croatia and Slovenia was already noticed.  In what concerns Austria, Traian Badulescu says that during the promotion of the ski offers they will also try to direct the Romanian preferences to the summer period. “Austria will benefit of an aggressive promotion, with low costs”, the ANAT official states.

In competition with Austria

There are also being prepared new touristic packages for the segment in which the money aren’t a problem. “The wish of spending a nice vacation determines the Romanians to choose luxury packages for Singapore. It’s a shopping destination which we are promoting for next year.
The entire city is like a huge mall, with many restaurants, hotels, shops and many clubs, and the atmosphere incites the tourists to go shopping”. Singapore, situated next to Ecuador, has become a shopping destination due to the politics of discounts and very small taxes. The price of a package that includes transportation by airplane, six nights accommodation with breakfast included to a four stars hotel and touristic assistance, starts from 1.399 euro. Returning to Europe, there is also news for the ones that love nature or purely they are saturated of other destinations and for which are organized charter flights.

“For the ones that were of too many times in Austria and want to try something new on this year – we propose them Chamonix or other resorts in the French Alps: Les Arcs, Flaine, Les Deux Alpes. These are practical options, not at all expensive. We have five weekly flights to Geneva, with prices that start from 220 euro, all taxes being included”, the representatives of www.promoturism.ro states. Situated at 65 kilometers from Geneva, Chamonix is famous for its ski paths, this not being the only attraction.

With a complex offer of services, Chamonix disposes of hotels that have pools, saunas, skating rinks or bowling rooms. In Argeniere, located close to Chamonix, the tourists can serve dinner to “Le 3842”, a restaurant situated at the highest altitude from Europe.

The outgoing market will decrease in 2009

However, the financial crisis affects the outgoing sector. If during this year the number of Romanians that have spend their holiday abroad through a tourism agency increased with 30%, in 2009 the increase level will be situated between 10-20%, according to the ANAT representative. On foreign plan it can already be noticed a decrease in demand for the touristic services with about 10%. “Taking into account that it is a year of crisis, in 2009 probable most of the Romanians will prefer destinations around the country, at average costs.  However, the luxury segment it isn’t affected, but the average class will pay more attention to the money”, the ANAT official adds. He estimates that clearly “will take place discounts for prices and tariffs for the touristic products and services from abroad”.  In what concerns the luxury segment, for the winter holiday that fallows there were sold with 30% more packages against last year.