The foreign tourists brought more money in Romania in 2005 than Romanians spent during their trips abroad after 1989. Business travel was the drive of the industry, which collected 845 million euros from foreigners last year, namely more than 1% of Romania''s Gross Domestic Product for 2005.
The amount is more than double the revenues between 2000-2004, when they stagnated at around 400 million euros. The hotels targeting businesspeople, the airlines, the travel agencies, all the players in this sector of the economy felt the business grow last year.
"The number of tourists has constantly increased over the last five or six years. The business travel segment has witnessed 15-20% growth since 1990 and it is only natural for a business tourist to spend more money on hotels and services," Claudia Stan, marketing manager of the Aerotravel travel agency, one of the top five players in this business commented for ZIARUL FINANCIAR.
"The number of foreign tourists using tourism packages went up 15%, while business travel increased by 20%," says Traian Badulescu, spokesman for the National Association of Travel Agencies.
Business travel accounted for 60-70% of the total tourism revenues in the last ten years.
With the upcoming EU accession, more and more foreign companies are opening subsidiaries on the domestic market.
The amounts Romanian tourists spent abroad in the previous years used to exceed the amounts entering the country on this segment by far. The situation reversed in 2005, about ten years later. Tourism revenues went up by 108% in 2005.
The last year with a similar growth rate had been 1994, and that was largely caused by the trend of the ROL/USD exchange rate.
Paying attention to the new trend introduced by the foreign companies moving to Romania, the domestic players are making increasingly larger investments in the segment aimed at businesspeople.
The market of the hotels for businesspeople witnessed its most flourishing year in 2005 and not only because several international hotel companies entered the market, but also because of the large investments in actual hotels.
More than ten new hotels opened in the Capital, all of them ranked as three to four stars, and experts say the trend will continue for the two-star segment.
For instance, Golden Tulip entered the market in full gear, by franchising four hotels in the Capital, NH Hoteles opened a hotel in Bucharest and will open its second in Timisoara this year, while Ramada is using its brand on the Majestic Hotel. Moreover, five-star players like Intercontinental International (present with the Crowne Plaza and Intercontinental brands in Bucharest) and Hilton are probing the market looking to introduce new three and four-star brands.
On the other hand, specialists say such moves will continue for at least two more years.
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