Travel agencies have so far sold around 90% of their offers for winter holidays, mainly relying on the introduction of charters to warm or exotic destinations, whilst ski resorts are still proving popular.
The high number of low-cost and regular flights to Austria and the possibility of travelling by car encouraged travel agencies to direct their charters towards warmer destinations such as Cyprus, Turkey and Egypt. Still, Austria remains Romanians' favourite destination.
"Austria is still in the lead, with an increase of 15% this winter against the same period in 2006, followed by Mediterranean destinations, such as Greece, Turkey, Egypt and Tunisia," said Traian Badulescu, spokesman of the National Association of Travel Agencies (ANAT).
J'Info Tours is among the few agencies that includes in its charter portfolio a destination in Austria (Salzburg). It first introduced the charter to Austria last winter and saw demand increase threefold this year.
However, travel agencies say most tourists who choose Austria as a destination prefer personal cars for transportation.
"In Austria, for ski resorts, cars are the favourite means of transportation, so we did not introduce any charters to this destination," said Alin Burcea, general manager of Paralela 45, which introduced charters to Antalya and Sham el Sheikh instead.
According to Badulescu, in Austria, besides the Alps, which is a favourite ski destination, Vienna is extremely popular and is among the most visited capitals, besides Paris, Barcelona and Prague.
"The offer has diversified from last year. In Europe, tourists prefer to spend their holidays in Paris, Vienna, Lisbon, Athens, Marbella, Barcelona, whilst the most sought-after exotic destinations are India, Thailand and Kenya," said Cristina Irimia, marketing manager at J'Info Tours.
Marshal Turism travel agency also introduced charters to several warm destinations this year.
"Last year, we introduced a new destination, Tenerife, besides charters to Cyprus, Egypt and Tunis," said Cristian Ghita, a commercial manager at Marshal Turism. Marshal representatives say Austrian ski resorts were the most popular European destinations, followed by the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Italy.
"As regards exotic destinations, the most sought-after were the Dominican Republic, Mauritius and Thailand and for other non-European destinations, Egypt, Tunis and the Arab Emirates," said Ghita.
Turkey remains, in the winter as well as in the summer season, a favourite destination. Alibaba Tours agency, which primarily offers trips to Turkey, posted a 100% increase in demand this year. Besides travel agencies, airlines also stand to gain from charters.
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