HappyTour in the press

Inspired by French traditions, Paravion.ro team prepared a special offer: “A lily-of-the-valley for her in Paris!” for the romantic internet users. Other exciting offers are “First of May in Dubai” or “Tanz in den Mai (Dance in May)” in the countries where the traditional spring festival Walpurgis Night or Bealtaine are celebrated.

Sun & beach packages are big sellers in 2012, too, especially the charters. The most wanted city break destinations are Rome, Paris, Amsterdam. The internet users also booked their favorite destinations on Paravion.ro:  Barcelona, Istanbul, Venice.      

Remus Visan, Deputy Managing Director Paravion Tour: This year, the best sellers for May the 1st  were charters for Antalya due to the mild Mediterranean climate and the various offer of all inclusive hotels in the area. Happy Tour Group prepared travel packages with unbeatable prices. There are tourists that choose remote destinations, as well. One of the most expensive packages, sold by Paravion.ro, was a holiday for two in Singapore and Hong Kong. This package was 3870 euro and it included first class flight tickets and Courtyard Marriott Hong Kong and Marriott Singapore hotels. For Antalya, our special offer has a starting price of 399 euro plus 95 euro taxes, all inclusive services for Aqua Plaza 4* Hotel. One cannot miss another special travel package for Turkey: Calista Luxury Resort 5*/ALL/BELEK - 715 euro/person + 95 euro taxes. Services included: 7 nights with all inclusive meals, flight ticket, airport transfers, travel assistance, storno insurance. Not included: airport taxes - 95 euro/person, infant tax - 30euro/infant, optional trips and entrance fees for various attractions. Cruises were not forgotten, so stay close and visit Paravion.ro.   

Other interesting offers for Paravion.ro users:     

First of May in Dubai
Paravion.ro prepared a special offer for photo enthusiasts, but also for travel professionals and event lovers: PhotoWorld Dubai & The Arabian Travel Market.  The offer is available for all those who want to visit the sky scrapers and the dessert and take advantage of our special prices. Upon request, only the flight tickets can be bought: 425 euro/person, departure only on 25.04.2012, charter, all taxes included.

PhotoWorld Dubai
If you are a photo enthusiast you can attend free seminars and workshops in Dubai World Trade Centre between 25th and 27th of April 2012. The name of the event is PhotoWorld Dubai – the only event of its kind in the Middle East.  

The Arabian Travel Market

The Arabian Travel Market gathers under the same roof top professionals of the world travel industry. They all meet at Dubai International Exhibition and Convention Centre during a travel event that dates since 1993. Only by going there you’ll be able to take the pulse of this travel fair: numerous stands, well-known travel agencies and plenty of destinations.
Starting price:  459 euro/person, 3* hotel, half board.  
Included services: charter flight Bucharest – DUBAI – Bucharest, airport transfer, 7 night’s accommodation, half board, assistance. Not included: airport taxes 129 euro/person, visa fee, travel insurance, storno insurance; optional trips; meals and drinks not included in this offer.

1st of May at the Red Sea

Many tourists choose to spend the 1st of May at the Black Sea, in Romania or Bulgaria or at the Red Sea. We had a lot of requests for Egypt this year, especially for the beautiful resort Sharm el Sheikh, as well as for the unbeatable price offer: 399 euro + 95 euro airport taxes at NORIA RESORT 4*. Included services: charter flight, transfer, 7 nights’ accommodation in a 4*/5* hotel, meals according to the offer, assistance. Not included: airport taxes, visa fee, travel insurance optional trips, meals and drinks not included in this offer.

On the 1st of May, offer her a lily-of-the-valley in Paris!

On 1st of May 1561, Carol IX received a lily-of-the-valley as an amulet. Since then, he decided to offer a bouquet of lilies to all the ladies at his court. As a reward, they all offered him a kiss. Thus a tradition was born that on the 1st of May every gentleman should offer a lily-of-the-valley or a wild rose to a lady.  If you want to stick to the tradition, we’ve prepared a special offer on Paravion.ro for the romantic lovers. Just let us know if lilies or roses are tax free, when you return.
                 
PARIS, 4 nights: 565 euro /person
Included services: flight ticket, 4 nights with breakfast in a 3* hotel, airport taxes.

Walpurgisnacht by Paravion.ro

Walpurgis Night is a German pagan holiday, when all witches and demons break loose and fairies and goblins come to bless the summer. It was best depicted in Faust opera when Mefisto promises to provide Faust with the love of the greatest and most beautiful women in history. But Faust finally remains faithful to Marguerite. Catholic believers in Germany, France, Pays Bas and England celebrate the first of May when they commemorate “beatae Walburgae virginis”, a saint that can be worshiped in Romania, too, in Cisnadie (Heltau) or abroad, by one of our special offers in:        

BERLIN, 4 nights: 480 euro / person
Included services: flight ticket, 4 nights with breakfast in a 3* hotel, airport taxes.

AMSTERDAM, 4 nights: 583 Euro / person
Included services: flight ticket, 4 nights with breakfast in a 3* hotel, airport taxes.

Lá Bealtaine

Lá Bealtaine is a pagan holiday that people still celebrate in Scotland, Ireland, and Whales. Tradition says that 1 of May is the only day when the fire can be put off and the fireplace swept out so that the fire of the new year can be lit. The village's cattle were driven between two fires to purify them and bring luck. People would also pass between the two fires to purify themselves. Nowadays, people simplified this tradition and the holyday turned more into a festival. Today they usually light two candles instead of the ancient fires. If you are curious about Scotland or Ireland, visit Paravion.ro and you’ll find answers:

SCOTLAND, EDINBURGH, 4 night’s package, starting from 599 euro/person
Services included: flight ticket, accommodation for 4 nights with breakfast in a 3* hotel, airoport taxes.
IRELND, DUBLIN, 4 night’s package, 345 Euro/person
Services included: flight ticket, accommodation for 4 nights with breakfast in a 3* hotel, airport taxes *.
*The offers are subject to terms and conditions and availability.  

Cruises at unbeatable prices!

An exceptional offer which our readers should not miss: a MSC cruise in the Mediterranean. Itinerary: Dubrovnik, Venetia, Bari, Katakolon, Izmir, Istanbul, Dubrovnik. The name of the ship: MSC Magnifica, launched in 2010. Embarking is from Dubrovnik, on 4th of May, 2012. The starting price is 129 euro/person in a double room, interior cabin. Services included: accommodation and full board, access to all on board activities and facilities, harbor taxes. Not included: transportation to/from the embarking/debarking point, onboard services and taxes, drinks served onboard, optional trips, other personal expenses, travel and storno insurance.

Our complete special offer for Turkey: 
Aqua Plaza 4*/All/Alanya - 339 Eur/Person/Package
Aka Alinda 5*/Uai/Kemer - 399 Eur/ Person / Package
Crystal Paraiso Verde 5*/Uai/Belek - 399 Eur/ Person / Package
Crystal Delux */Uai/Kemer - 405 Eur/ Person / Package
Kervansaray Kundu 5*/Uai/Kundu - 425 Eur/ Person / Package
Aka Antedon 5*/Uai/Kemer - 475 Eur/ Person / Package
Corinthia Club Tekirova 5*/Uai/Kemer - 515 Eur/ Person / Package
Delphin Botanik */All/Alanya - 519 Eur/ Person / Package
Royal Dragon 5*/Uai/Side - 619 Eur/ Person / Package
Royal Holiday Palace 5*/Uai/Lara - 656 Eur/ Person / Package
Calista Luxury Resort 5*/All/Belek - 715 Eur/ Person / Package
Delphin Imperial 5*/Uai/Lara - 719 Eur/ Person / Package.

•    Happy Tour won the prize for “The best travel agency”and Paravion.ro won the prize for “The best online travel agency in Romania”.

•    The prizes were awarded during the Gala of “Hotel Tourism & Leisure Investment Conference”, the most important event dedicated to the local travel industry.

Bucharest, 2012, April 26: On April 24th, 2012, Happy Tour Group, owned by Ged Capital, walked again on the walk of fame, during the Gala of Hotel Tourism & Leisure Investment Conference, by winning two important awards: Happy Tour - “The best travel agency” and Paravion.ro - “The best online travel agency in Romania”. During this event the most important players on the local travel market were also awarded for the most efficient and innovative projects and concepts in hospitability and leisure in Romania.

Javier Garcia del Valle, Executive Vice President / CEO Happy Tour Group: “We’re glad that both the members of the jury and the people who voted acknowledged our leading position. We also want to congratulate all those who took part in this national competition as competitors or as winners, as well. Together, as partners or as loyal competitors, we’ve managed to set a new trend for the travel industry – The P.P. trend (Performance and Professionalism Trend) and we proved that western standards can be achieved and even exceed in many cases. These awards validate our strategy and challenge us to do more as they also come to reconfirm other prizes and distinctions awarded before to the companies of Happy Tour Group. As you very well know, Happy Tour, as the official representative of FCm Travel Solutions, is the only travel company in Romania to bring the Oscar of World Travel Industry - World’s Leading Travel Management Company in January 2012, and Paravion.ro is the first online travel portal in Romania and the leader of online travel agencies due to a remarkable team work and sustained investments in technology. In 2011 alone, we invested about 400 000 euro in order to develop a complex booking platform with numerous features or improvements.   

Remus Visan, Deputy Managing Director of Paravion.ro: “This prize represents an acknowledgement of our financial efforts in 2011, to both improve and secure our web platform. We’re glad to be elected the best online travel agency in Romania which is even more rewarding taking into account the tough competition and the dynamic of the local market”
More information about the 28 winners of the Gala can be found on the official website of the event: www.hotelconference.ro.

About Happy Tour
Happy Tour was founded in 1996 as a family business and remained the largest travel agency for the last 11 years. At the end of 2007, the company was acquired by GED Capital. In 2010, Happy Tour acquired Travel House International and the online portal Paravion.ro, founding Paravion Tour, and in 2011 it acquired Prestige Tours.
Starting 2011, Happy Tour Group is the Romanian representative of FCm Travel Solutions – a worldwide network of travel companies in 75 countries.

About Paravion.ro
Launched in 2005, Paravion.ro is the first Romanian online travel agency. Starting May 2010, Paravion.ro is part of Happy Tour Group, the leader of travel agencies in Romania. This acquisition was the next step in consolidating the most important travel service provider in Romania.

•    The prize was awarded during the “Hotel Tourism & Leisure Investment Conference”, the most important event dedicated to the local travel industry

•    During the same event, Happy Tour was awarded “The best travel agency”

Bucharest, April 25, 2012: Paravion.ro, the largest online selling platform for travel services on the local market won the title for “The best online booking website” during the fifth Gala of Hotel Tourism & Leisure Investment Conference. During the same event, Happy Tour, which incorporates Paravion.ro, won the title for “The best travel agency”.

The newly awarded prize comes after a comprehensive program of improvement and development of travel services. This program also involved important financial resources; in 2011 alone, about 400 000 euro were invested.  

“This prize represents an acknowledgement of our financial efforts in 2011 to both improve and secure our web platform. We’re glad to be elected the best online travel agency in Romania which is even more rewarding taking into account the tough  competition and the dynamic of the local market”, declared Remus Visan, Deputy Managing Director of Paravion.ro.

As starting November 2011, Paravion.ro re-launched its online selling platform by adding new integrated services, thus becoming more flexible and user friendly. By improving the platform, a new, more powerful search engine is now available for the users, so that they can search/book for longer periods of time without being worried about expiring the session. Besides, the users can now use a single shopping cart for all their purchased services (flight ticket, accommodation, insurance).

Another important advantage offered by Paravion.ro is the new flight search results page. While other websites display the entire flight duration with no details on stop over times, Paravion.ro allows users to see the duration of each flight segment as well as stop over times in the airport.  

Since the beginning of this year, Paravion.ro and PayU developed 45 safety filters for 100% safe transactions.

***

About Paravion.ro

Launched in 2005, Paravion.ro is the first Romanian online travel agency. Satarting May 2010, Parvion.ro is part of happy Tour Group, the leader of travel agencies in Romania. This acquisition was the next step in consolidating the most important travel service provider in Romania.

The local travel agencies estimate that the Easter holiday will bring them a total profit between 5 and 10 million euro. For a few hundred euros, most of the tourists choose holiday packages in the country or in Bulgaria, Greece or Cyprus. Yet, some of them spent thousands of euros for their favorite destination or even the price of an apartment for an exotic and luxurious holiday in Asia or Africa.

The most expensive package for the Easter holiday cost as much as an apartment, that is 53,000 euros according to a financial analysis performed by ZF based on the data received from travel agencies. For 14 days (April, 5-19), the lucky tourists will taste the marvels of Singapore in one of the well-known hotels in world, Marina Bay Sands. The five star hotel is part of recreational complex where 4 billion pounds were invested to create a unique structural masterpiece, designed by visionary architect Moshe Safdie. The complex has 2560 rooms and apartments, restaurants, malls, casinos, theaters, a museum and two crystal pavilions. The price included four flight tickets and two hotel rooms with breakfast.

"Just like every year, the Happy Tour agencies sold an important amount of products and travel services for the Easter period ", declared Mădălina Grosu, product manager of Happy Tour, the largest travel group on the local market, with an estimated turnover of 60 million euro last year.

The passengers’ names cannot be disclosed, but according to available information, the people who allocate such travel budgets run their own business or they are managers in multinational corporations.

Luxury holidays in Tanzania, Dubai and Sardinia.

The second most expensive holiday was a 10 days circuit in Tanzania (Eastern Africa). Some of the attractions of this country are its wildlife, the famous Ngoro Ngoro Crater National Park or the Kilimanjaro Mountain. A family with two children paid 30,000 euro for quite an exotic holiday. They indulged themselves with business class flight, access to all lounges in the transit airports, five star hotel accommodation, transfers and other services like balloon rides, according to Sorin Văduvoiu, general manager of Perfect Tour.

Another expensive Easter holiday was in Dubai at the Jumeirah Beach Hotel with 34 000 square meters of finest sands. A family with one child paid 20 000 euro for this holiday, according to Happy Tour representative.

Other six tourists will spend 10 days in Sardinia, at Colona Pevero Hotel. The holiday came as a gift voucher and it was bought from Happy Tour by a Romanian customer.

“Beside the regular packages sold for the Easter period, Happy Tour also sold packages as gift vouchers that will be offered in the Resurrection Night. One of these vouchers worthed 16 000 euro and it represents a 10 days holiday for six persons, in Sardinia, at Colonna Pevero Hotel”, according to Happy Tour representative.

For 14 days, four tourists will taste the luxury of Marina Bay Sands in Singapore, considered to be one of the most famous hotels in the world.

According to ANAT (the National Association of Travel Agencies), almost 15 000 tourists went abroad to spend their Easter holiday, last year. Most of them choose to travel in Bulgaria, Greece, Cyprus or Spain.  About 5 000 Romanian tourist stayed in Bulgarian hotels during the Easter holiday, last year. There are no official estimates about how many tourists will go abroad this year.

Last year, the Romanians spent 1.4 billion euro on holidays abroad, while the foreigners spent 1 billion euro in Romania, thus generating a negative balance for the travel industry. Last year’s deficit is about 400 million euro, similar to year 2010. Since 2008 the balance of the travel industry has ben negative, unlike the year before when it was a positive one.

A travel agency expects half million euro sales for the Easter holiday

“We don’t have a lot of tourists, but we have high value packages for people with generous budgets. We doubled our customers for Easter packages, but the demand increased only by 10%” says Mircea Vladu, manager of Prestige Tours, part of Happy Tour Group.

He also explains that about half million sales are expected for the Easter holiday.
The travel agencies sold almost their entire stock of charter flights to Crete, Rhodes, Antalya, Dubai for the Easter period. Although there is only one charter for these destinations (for this period of the year, unlike the summer season when there are several flights per week), the revenue was quite consistent.

Mircea Vladu says that for last year’s Easter their offer included charters for Crete and Rhodes, but for this year they came up with new destinations like Palma de Mallorca and Dubai. “Almost all of the 150 seats for the Wednesday charter (the day before Easter), are taken. Ten persons paid up to 7000 euro to spend their Easter holiday in Dubai at the most expensive hotels” says Mircea Vladu.

Perfect Tour, 1.000 Easter packages at home and abroad
Perfect Tour sold a little more than 1000 packages for the Easter holiday. This year the demand for such packages has been greater than the last year.

Sorin Văduvoiu, general manager of the travel agency, says that some of the tourists choose the rural guesthouses in the countryside, others took off for European capitals while the wealthy ones paid thousands of euro for their Easter holiday. Just like the case of Prestige Tours, the manager of Perfect Tour expects half million euro revenues from Easter packages. “The structure of the school curriculum will help us a lot as many children will be able to go on holiday with their parents. Cruises, as well as simple holiday packages sold very well”, declared Sorin Văduvoiu.

One of the most expensive products sold by Perfect Tour is a seven night’s package in Dubai for two persons. Luxury is the key word for this package that includes five star hotel and other 10 000 euro worth services.

Other tourists choose a 8 000 euro package for 10 days in the Maldives. A couple paid 7 000 for 8 days in Thailand. Six tourists are going to Sardinia at Colonna Pevero Hotel. The price tag was 16 000 euro.

25% more packages sold

The representatives from Aero Travel say that this year they sold 25% more packages compared to last year. “Most of the requests were for packages abroad, even more than the home packages. The requests for cruises doubled, especially for Mediterranean itineraries including ports in Spain, France and Italy”, according to Antonio Niţu, general manager of the company.

One of the most expensive destinations was Hong Kong. An all-inclusive package for this destination cost 1.950 euro per person, according to the company’s officials. Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic was also an expensive choice: a package for this destination cost more than 2 000 euro per person.

“We’ve prepared an interesting package for Ireland. All the services rose up to 841 euro per person”.
Corina Martin, president of ANAT declared that yet there are no official estimates of how many Romanian tourists will be spending their Easter holiday, in the country or abroad.

“What we know for sure is that most of the tourists will choose to spend their Easter holiday in Bulgaria, Greece or Cyprus. Those who remain in the country will choose the traditional way: a cozy guesthouse in the Bucovina or Bran-Moeciu region”, says Corina Martin.

For some tour operators, Romanian Tourism Fair represented a positive experience and they appreciated, as well, the good sales and the improved logistic during this year edition.

”Finally, the Ministry of Tourism and ANAT made a common effort to organize this Fair, the stands looked even better and, for the first time, people were really anxious to buy travel packages”, says Javier Garcia del Valle, CEO Happy Tour Group, the largest tour operator in Romania.

What people wanted and how much they were willing to spend

All the participants were pleased by the results of the Fair. For example, the sales of Happy Tour Group doubled compared to last year’s Fair, and they reached 100,000 euro in only four days.
As expected, Antalya was one of the favorite destinations for Romanians and they spent about 750 euro per person for a seven night’s package, all inclusive. ”They all prefer Turkey because the flight time is short and the prices are good and the all-inclusive option allows them to make an accurate prediction on how much they are going to spend there”, adds Javier Garcia del Valle.

After a full day’s work or a busy week, numerous businessmen choose to relax playing computer games. Wall-Street.ro interviewed five managers about their passion for virtual games

Remus Visan, Paravion.ro: "Planes" is my favorite game, I just love it.
 
“All the world's a stage, and we are merely players:”, like to say Remus Visan (foto), manager of the online portal Paravion.ro.
The Romanian manager tells us that he is very busy, yet he manages to make some time for his own: “I have a very busy day at work, but from time to time I afford the «luxury» to go to a theatre, a movie, to practice or just to play a game”, says Visan.

During a break, he plays “Planes”, a game launched by Paravion.ro together with Brandaffair, in November last year in order to attract and entertain the Facebook users.
“It’s an interactive, recreational and vintage game conceived to escape the everyday routine into the world of an old game which used to keep busy generations of pupils when, during a break, they drew and played the planes game on the back of their notebooks”, recollects Remus Visan about his favorite game.

He plays it when he travels or when he’s at home with his family: “Sometimes I play Planes when I travel alone or in the company of other people, at the office or when I wait for hours in some airport. Sometimes I play it with my wife or my children”.

When he’s at home, Remus Visan plays the game with his children: Ariana Theodora who’s 5 and Calin Andrei - the little brother. “To initiate them into the games of my generation we use the console”. Otherwise, when he’s in a team building or during his lunch break he uses the PC.

Usually, he spends 10-15 minutes to play the game in the evening, but he dedicates the entire weekend to his family.
“It’s a tradition to be together in the weekends and we’d rather go out than stay indoors in front of a game console or the computer. Sometimes I play at the office when I am challenged be some of my colleagues for an ad-hoc championship ", says Remus Visan.

The Romanian manager remembers the days of his childhood when he had a real passion for the planes game. During his adolescence, he never missed a strategy game, Age of Empires being his favorite.

Bucharest, February the 8th 2012: Paravion.ro, the first online travel agency on the local market reported an increase by over 130% compared to the same period in 2011. The main reason was the extreme, changing weather with heavy snow falls and freezing temperatures.
).

“Once again, the tourists have discovered the advantages of buying online: you don’t have to face the show, the cold or the wind to get to a travel agency, you only have to comfortably spend a few minutes in front of your computer and buy your ticket online: safe and sound. Booking your ticket, paying for it and getting it in your mail box it’s only a matter of minutes and it can be done from home or from work”, Mr. Remus Visan says, Deputy Managing Director at Paravion.ro.

The predicted sales volume for the beginning of February 2012 situated somewhere between 200 and 250 bookings / day. Due to the bad weather, the records show over 500 on-line bookings, most of them were made for European destinations. About 65% of these bookings were made by persons at their first attempt to buy a ticket on Paravion.ro.

We expect that the actual trend of booking and selling tickets on www.paraion.ro will maintain and grow, taking into account that the weather conditions will continue to deteriorate, according to the latest forecasts.

“Between February the 1st and the 7th, 2012, the sales on www.paravion.ro increased by 130% compared to the first week of January, 2011. This percent keeps growing day by day”, Remus Visan added.

During the last year, on www.paravion.ro more than 80.000 travel bookings were made and no less than 3 million of flight searches were performed. In partnership with PayU, Paravion.ro developed 45 security filters that make online transactions 100% safe.

Two months ago, the selling platform behind Paravion.ro was redesigned by adding new integrated services thus making it more flexible and user friendly.***

About Paravion.ro

Launched in 2005, Paravion.ro is the first Romanian online travel agency. Starting May 2010, Paravion.ro is part of the Happy Tour Group, the leader of local travel market. This was one of several steps to come in order to consolidate the most important travel services provider in Romanaia.

On February, 3 2012, the airline company Malev was suspended from BSP. An agreement was reached between the company and IATA in order to process the refund requests from travel agencies through BSPlink.

All the requests will be centralized until March 2, 2012 and, as soon as Malev asses all the applications, the list of approved transactions will be published by IATA. The expected date is March 23, 2012. For more details, please send an email at info.ro@iata.org 

Happy Tour Team

•    In 2011, more than 80.000 travel bookings were made using Paravion.ro and no less than 3 million of flight searches were performed

•   PayU uses anti-fraud and security filters specially tailored for Paravion.ro

Bucharest, January the 23rd, 2011: in order to completely secure the online payments on www.paravion.ro, ePayment, recently rebranded into PayU, developed 45 filters to improve the safety of online transactions. Every payment is screened and double checked against fraud attempts.

PayU uses specially developed algorithms to secure any information passed on to the online forms on www.paravion.ro. Thus, the passengers are assured that their personal and financial details are safe.

In 2011, www.paravion.ro counted more than 80.000, 100% safe bookings and no less than 3 millions of flight searches were performed.

“For Paraion.ro the safety of online transactions has been a priority from the very beginning. This is why since the very first year of our existence, 2005, no fraud occurred, although several attempts were recorded. PayU platform will provide the same success for Paravion.ro. In the same time, it will grant the passengers the confidentiality of their card information” declared Remus Visan, Deputy Managing Director at Paravion.ro.

The new PayU platform offers all the advantages in terms of security for online transactions. Besides, it will also provide a new range of services and new payment methods in order to ensure the internet users a more comfortable, online experience.

“The Romanian customers buying on Paravion.ro or on other PayU secured sites will take advantage from the latest services and methods to enjoy a completely safe and comfortable payment experience. The automated screening filters and fraud prevention center are enforced 24/7/365 to check against any suspicious transaction” declared Cristian Herghelegiu, Country Manager for PayU.

One of the new services is the online payment using your internet banking interface, with instant payment confirmation. This service was launched in Romania midsummer 2011 by PayU Romania in partnership with ING Bank. Other banks will also be able to provide this service taking advantage of the experience accumulated by PayU group in other countries.

Paravion.ro first used the online payment system in 2005 in partnership with GECAD ePayment. It was the first online travel agency to implement and use the payment solution from ePayment, now incorporated in PayU.

***

About Paravion.ro
Launched in 2005, Paravion.ro is the first Romanian online travel agency. Starting May 2010, Paravion.ro is part of the Happy Tour Group, the leader of local travel market. This was one of several steps to come in order to consolidate the most important travel services provider in Romanaia.

About PayU
Grupul PayU is a professional e-commerce solution provider for the regional market with a presence in Poland, Cehia, Romania and, soon, in Hungary. PayU a pr

The Happy Tour team, as the official representative of FCm Travel Solutions in Romania, is proud to be part of the big family of professionals to be awarded with the highest distinction of world travel industry - WORLD’S LEADING TRAVEL MANAGEMENT COMPANY in 2011. This prize is a commitment to perform more as well as it is a challenge and a motivation. In 2012 every partner in the Happy Tour Group will take full advantage of the added value offered by FCm WORLD’S LEADING TRAVEL MANAGEMENT COMPANY.

The officials from FCm Travel Solutions received the valuable prize during a gala ceremony at the CORPORATE TRAVEL MANAGEMENT category. The ceremony marked the 18th Gala for the World Travel Awards Grand Ceremony and it was held in Doha, Qatar, January 11, 2011.

This prize is the most important in the travel industry due to it honored hosts and selection standards. About 213.000 travel and hospitability professionals around the globe will participate in voting the final winner. 

The distinction accepted at the Grand Final Gala caps off a series of achievements for FCm which in 2011 was also voted Europe’s Leading Travel Management Company, Asia’s Leading Travel Management Company, Australasia’s Leading Business Travel Agent and North America’s Leading Travel Management Company.

FCm Travel Solutions global leader Gregory Lording said FCm was delighted to claim this new title which confirms the numerous successes in the regional travel in 2011. He declared: "The award for World's Leading Travel Management Company recognizes the professionalism of our travel teams throughout our global network and reinforces FCm's growing brand and business presence in the global corporate travel arena”.

"Our broad geographical footprint, local knowledge and ability to tailor services to suit the needs of each customer have the company well placed for further growth and success in the future."

Brian Donnelly, General Manger Europe, Middle East and Africa for FCm Travel Solutions “This award recognizes the daily efforts of our travel teams, their dedication and professionalism. Our ability to provide high-quality and consistent service around the FCm network means our customers receive the same excellent level of service no matter where in the world they do business with FCm. Even though we are a global company our focus will always be on local service that clients can rely on and trust.”

Javier Garcia del Valle, Executive Vice President / CEO Happy Tour Group: “In 2011 Happy Tour became the Romanian representative of FCm Travel Solutions – a global travel management provider spanning more than 75 countries worldwide. Our affiliation with this network is the guaranty for our customers that they’ll get the best cost-effective solutions and the most creative ideas for business travel according to the philosophy “Better ideas. Greater savings”. FCm Travel Solutions and their partners offer some benefits - among others - that corporate clients appreciate: cost optimization and unified reporting procedures.”

Four years have passed since Happy Tour was acquired by the Spanish private equity GED. Today, Happy Tour has a new philosophy and a new look. Not another owner, yet.

Exactly four years ago, GED Capital Development became the happy owner of Happy Tour - at that time being the most important player on the market with a 46.4 million euro turnover. The company maintained its leading position during these years. Last year, the company’s turnover was 34.8 million euro, but things are completely different now. It’s no longer a company, but a group of companies which, with an estimated 62 million euro turnover this year, makes it the most important company on the local travel market. According to the initial plans, GED was now supposed to exit. “We are a private equity and at a certain moment we’ll sell. It’s true that we’ve been here for four years now, but there is an economic recession going, so the exit is postponed”, says Javier Garcia del Valle, CEO of the four companies incorporated now in the Happy Tour Group. He also says that the private equity he represents usually won’t exit earlier than two years, but, as in any other business, everything depends on the economic situation.

PRACTICE AND THEORY.

For the moment, GED is the only investor in the travel industry and in the hotel industry.

Who is the buyer? Theoretically, there are several options: an international group, another private equity, a Romanian entrepreneur or even a listing on the stock exchange. “We are not looking for a buyer, right now, but if we have an offer tomorrow, we’ll show it to GED and then we’ll see”, says Garcia del Valle, adding that even Mircea Vladu (the former owner of Prestige Tour) was not looking for a buyer either, “but he did sell it to us because it was a good opportunity”.

“2007 was more difficult year to buy than it is now. Now it’s much cheaper, but it’s even cheaper if you want to sell”, says Garcia del Valle while he remembers that four years ago, when he first came in Romania not only the road from the airport was different, but also the customers’ way of thinking was different.“ A brief description of the last four years: “We bought in 2007, in 2008 were entirely in charge of the company and in 2009 the recession came“, sums up Garcia del Valle smiling. In 2009, beside the recession, the negotiations with Paravion.ro started. The company was acquired in 2010, “because the future is online”. The next acquisition was Travel House, “which brought us a little bit of corporate and a little bit of leisure on top of a massively corporate travel business”. This year, Prestige Tour also joined the largest group of travel agencies in Romania. The manager also explains that Prestige Tour “brought us a network of mass retail and leisure. The group has now 140 employees, 46 selling points in 30 cities across the country. Should he started all over again, Garcia del Valle says - without hesitating - he would buy the same companies because of the people who work there.

“From now, on our strategy is to consolidate our assets”, says the manager, explaining that there are four companies now and it is not easy to put them together. For the moment, the four companies work separately, while there are no laws for holding entities. We have to make sure that all the synergies work together and that we don’t step on each other feet”, says Garcia del Valle. The next step is optimizing the companies within the group and expanding them. Although officially there are no plans for another acquisition, the official says he is open to any opportunities that might arise. One must add that in June 2010, shortly after Paravion.ro was acquired, Robert Luke, Managing Director at GED, said that the private equity had more 40 million euro to spend. But this year, the private equity bought 30% of the Continental Hotels chain.

CONSOLIDATION.

The group managed by Mr. Garcia del Valle has a 15% market share. He hopes that this share will be bigger next year. At the same time the market itself needs consolidation. There are 3,000 travel agencies in Romania for a population of 20 million. In Spain, for example, there are 4,000 travel agencies for a population of 50 million. One thing is clear: the market will become stable and more mature. On one hand there will be a natural selection and many travel agencies will disappear. An example, says Garcia del Valle, is the travel agencies that sell holidays in Turkey for 100 euro, then they cancel the holidays and create a lot of problems and a general sense of public mistrust. “The competition makes me better, but I want a fair completion and I don’t want to be put in the same place with small travel agencies”, says the manager. On the other hand, we will see important movements on the market, just like a few month ago, when TUI, the largest tour operator enter the market in a partnership with Eurolines - owned by the local businessman Dragoş Anastasiu. “Romania is growing. We are growing, very slowly indeed, but it’s important that we can do that”, admits the Spanish manager. He does not exclude either the possibility for other international travel service providers to come to Romania. Romania receives two million foreign tourists annually, while Spain is visited by 60 million foreign tourists every year. “Romania must appear on the great touristic map of the world. Today is not quite visible”, says Garcia del Valle, explaining that “in Spain it is said that you are not from the country where you were born, but in the country that welcomes you. I am happy that I am in Romania and I consider myself Romanian”. Just like any other Romanian, he also thought that the economic crisis will end in 2011, but know it proves he was wrong. It’s true, there are a lot of people who travel, the overall sales volume increased by 10% compared to the last year, there are a lot of early and last minute booking, but… things could have been better.

When asked what the future of travel agencies was, Garcia del Valle answers that the future certainly has to do with the internet. Especially now, when Paravion.ro is growing: more and more passengers buy flight tickets or city breaks directly online.

Happy Tour is today the only group in the market owned by a private equity, the only group with a plan of acquisitions, the only group developed using an occidental business model. It has all the advantages of a modern travel business. Who will be its new owner?

During the last years, the hierarchy of travel agencies has changed. Happy Tour maintained its first place.

The number of tourists in all accommodation facilities in Romania increased by 16% in the last 9 months.

December is the month we’ve been waiting for a year. It is time for presents, whishes, good news, parties. It’s not that we work less this month, but joy is in the air. Carols can be heard in your office, in your home, in your car, in malls. The city sparkles with fairy-like lights, the shops are crowded with people forgetting about the economic crisis and the frantic shopping mania has begun. We decorate the Christmas-trees, look for presents for the love ones. We even decorate our desks at the office while listening to Stefan Hrusca’s carols and “Gingle bells” and, above all we feel the magic of winter and Christmas.

It might be difficult to bring the Christmas spirit at home or at your office if you are not in the mood for it or if all year long there has been a tense climate in the places you live or work. Things doesn’t change overnight, you don’t get better, smarter or if the day before you were the opposite. Then why not start bringing the Christmas spirit in January for December. You won’t find tree decorations during the summer. But you can find peace, understanding and the will to be constructive, to rediscover yourself. And you should find all these at any time, long before Christmas arrives. And when it arrives, you can truly enjoy the spirit of Christmas and be thankful to yourself that in the year that’s about to end you’ve worked hard and done a great job.

At Happy Tour we try hard to be – as we like to call ourselves – “happy”. A few days ago, someone told me: “you have in your brand the word happy and as the words give power to our actions, you dare destiny to be good with you”. May be things do work this way and if you write and say the word happy many times a day, the universe really starts working for you in a good way. May be it’s just a theory about the power of words or about being positive, but after all what’s wrong about thinking this way?

The Christmas spirit – at home or at work – is all about this: how to be a good and happy person, but how can you do that if don’t prepare yourself for that?

Four of the largest travel agencies on the local market, Happy Tour, Perfect Tours, Aerotravel and Paralela 45 expect that year 2012 will not be an “easy” one and they do careful budget predictions due to the turbulences affecting the euro zone.

The growths some players estimate are up to 5%. Prestige Tours advanced the most optimistic prediction: 25% and it based on their business travel sales segment.

“We’ve been very careful about the next year’s budget prediction when we expect a 5% turnover increase” declared Alin Burcea, owner of Paralela 45. At the end of Q4 this year, the company reported a 27 million turnover, 20% larger than the same period, last year

On the other hand, Javier Garcia del Valle, manager of Happy Tour - the largest group of travel companies on the local market, claims that the next year is not expected to be an “easy” one.

“We’ve started working on our budget for the next year. Our customers and, generally, all the players in the economy wait for the effects of the economic crisis to fade away. The situation in Greece and the potential consequences over other countries in the euro zone, the foreign investments and the economic recovery are just a few of the uncertainties that will affect our business in 2012”, declared Javier Garcia del Valle. Nevertheless, Happy Tour CEO says that, although he is optimistic about the next year’s results, it’s difficult to predict what the turnover will look like.

The Group incorporates Happy Tour - the travel agency that operates 55 in-house and associated agencies in 33 cities, Paravion.ro, the online travel agency, Travel House – the luxury holiday agency and Prestige Tours – the incoming and outgoing travel agency. Javier Garcia del Vale also stated that October, November and December are important months for the travel industry and they will positively influence the consolidated turnover of the group. “We estimate that a 20-25% consolidated growth is realistic until the end of the year.” This year Happy Tour Group signed over 100 new contracts with corporate clients (small, medium and large companies) and provided business travel and event services.

In Q1 2011, Aerotravel had a 25% turnover increase compared to the same period, last year. Ema Condurache, marketing manager at Aerotravel, says that the company’s objective is to boost the leisure segment. “We’ve started working on our next year’s budget. The main goal of our tour operator – Aerotravel, the Holiday Factory, is to boost the leisure segment (holidays)” declared Ema Condurache without specifying what kind of growth she was expecting.

On the other hand, Sorin Vaduvoiu, manager at Perfect Tour (16 million turnover in the first months, 60% more than the same period, last year) says that he expects a 25% turnover increase, the most optimistic prediction, so far. “Consolidating the partnership with the reselling agencies, increasing the number of customers for the business travel segment, the significant growth of the luxury/VIP segment represented a fine evolution of the first nine months. For the next year, we also expect a growth above the average level of the market”, said Vaduvoiu.

Exotic destinations are in great demand for this year’s winter holidays, but a few thousand Euros is the starting price.

Some of the Romanian managers that run important businesses have already booked a holiday for the 2012 New Year’s Eve: five star hotels in exotic locations which can cost up to 16,000 Euros.

"Many Happy Tour customers are people who run important businesses. That is why they often decide to go on holiday pretty late, in December sometimes, because the end of the year is the busiest period of the year. Nonetheless, we have customers who book their holyday early.” declared Mădalina Grosu, product manager at Happy Tour, the largest travel agency on the local market.

Until now Happy Tour sold several holiday packages for exotic destinations with a price tag of several thousand Euros, but the European capitals were also a preferred destination.
The most expensive packages were holidays in the Maldives and in Abu Dhabi.

A family with child will celebrate the New Year’s Eve in the Maldives, for 16.000 euro.

"Two adults and one child purchased from us a 16,000 Euro holiday (flight ticket, accommodation, local services). The departure is on December the 24th and the return on January the 6th. They booked a five star hotel, Velassaru Maldives, situated on the beach", added Mădălina Grosu.

Another package purchased from Happy Tour for 2012 New Year’s Eve is a holiday in Abu Dhabi. The selling price was 15,000 euro for seven nights at the Emirates Palace hotel, breakfast and gala dinner included.
Last year, 8370 Romanian tourists went abroad. They spent 4.1 millions euro, according to the FPTR (Federation of Tourism Service Providers of Romania).

Cruises were also requested

"Certainly the tourists also booked cheaper offers", the Happy Tour representative added.
Until now we’ve sold a 15 days cruise in the South Caribbean between December 18 and January 2 for the following itinerary: San Juan, Puerto Rico, St. Maarten, St. Lucia, Antigua and other islands. The price of the package was about 1,750 euro per person.

Happy Tour also sold an eight circuit in Madrid and Seville for December 27 and January 3. The price of the package was 995 euro per person and it included four star hotels accommodation with breakfast, flight tickets, panoramic city tour in Madrid, Cordoba, Seville and one day trip to Granada. The Romanian tourists also choose to spend their New Year’s Eve in Sharm el Sheikh. The price for a seven day package, four star hotel is 679 euro per person.

Tourists with a budget of 1000 euro and over choose five star hotels

Daniela Dumitrica, marketing manager at Paralela 45, says that until now their travel agency sold a New Year’s Eve package in Singapore and Malaysia at 1,895 euro per person including the Air France flight ticket. "The price of the package includes five star hotel accommodation, airport transfers, city tour with local guide ", Daniela Dumitrica said.
Another package we’ve sold was in the Dominican Republic at 1,975 euro per person including flight ticket, all inclusive accommodation in the five star bungalows Bavaro Princess and the gala dinner.

Dubai and Thailand are the most favorite destinations for the end of the year

Daniela Dumitrica added that tourists also bought holiday packages in Thailand, at 1,095 euro per person, with seven nights in a four star hotel and city tour.
Another destination was Dubai for 985 euro per person. "The package includes nonstop flight, seven nights in a four star hotel, city tour with local guide and Romanian group attendant."
Lucian Boronea, general manager at Accent Travel & Events, says that the tourists choose numerous luxury destinations. Los Angeles (two people bought a eight day holiday at 4.200 euro) and Rio de Janeiro were some of them.

Once again, Amadeus proved to be a valuable partner which provides additional services at a very good price, thus helping the travel agencies to maximize their revenues. The ability to access an entire range of services from a unified interface allows the agencies to save time and offer additional services to their customers. This also insures an improved way of delivering services and a better customer perception.

Javier Garcia del Valle, Executive Vice President Happy Tour

The flight tickets market – for regular air lines - is estimated at minimum 300 million euro in 2011, the on-line sales will represent about 7-8%, almost double than the last year. Paravion.ro, one of the main players in this segment wants to consolidate its position on the market – see the plans, the stake, the fears and the drawbacks in an exclusive interview with Remus Visan, deputy managing director at Paravion Tour SRL, the online agency of the Happy Tour Group, owned by GED.
Happy Tour share holders are GED as well as business men like Mircea Vladu and Remus Visan. The main competitors for Paravion.ro are platforms like Vola.ro, eSky.ro, Decoleaza.ro or BileteAvion.ro.

Wall-Street.ro: Is it just my opinion or are there more and more booking/selling sites for flight tickets?
Remus Visan: In this moment, the number of online travel agencies in Romania is quite big, but still small compared to the offline IATA accredited agencies. As far as I know there are aproximatively 200, IATA accredited. They used to be more numerous but many of them were closed because of the economical conditions in Romania and they were no longer been able to sustain this financial effort. An accredited IATA agency must provide a payment guaranty to cover the passengers. For example, if you sell 1 million euro worth tickets a month, IATA require that you have an insurance policy of 500,000 euro.

W-S.ro: What makes Paravion.ro different from its competitors? What is your strategy?
RS: We are the only 100% online agency to offer our passengers the possibility to book, pay, issue their ticket and board the plane  the same day, in just a few of hours. This is what makes us different from our competitors and this also helped us retain those passengers for whom “time is money”. Our ticketing agent step in when only if a booking requires a more elaborate itinerary.

W-S.ro: The only 100% online agency? And your competitors, what are they?
RS: In their case they rely heavily on ticketing agents that need to confirm the transaction and contact the passenger, one way or another. This step is no longer necessary for Paravion.ro. After all, it’s all about comfort. With us, everything takes place on the internet; there is no need for you to wait for a travel agent to confirm you anything.

W-S.ro: What is the percent of exclusively online transactions that are processed by Paravion.ro – booking, payment, everything?
RS: About 45% of the transactions are exclusively processed on the internet. I know it’s a big percentage, even compared to other online transactions, like eMag.ro, the leader of the online retail. But this is our strategy, to make an online business not just a simple portal acting as sales channel.

W-S.ro: This means you need fewer people to do the job?
RS: Let’s say that if we are to compare with our main competitor, for 10 of his agents, we use only one. Presently, we have 7 travel agents for support, 4 of which are also ticketing agents. Of course, we have a call center, too, but this is an externalized service.

W-S.ro: What is the percentage of low-cost tickets?
RS: In our case, it’s very low - only 5%. The rest 95% represent tickets for air-liners companies. Our clients prefer air-liners companies for several motives: flexible flight tables, onboard services and rerouting possibilities is something out of the ordinary happens. It’s also true that we the customers that wish to travel with low-cost companies and these sales are 100% online, too.

W-S.ro: Vola.ro, one of your competitors, published its financial data for Q1, saying that they have sold 30,000 flight tickets. Where is Paravion.ro situated?
RS: (smiling) For all the players in the market, the IATA numbers are public. The low-cost sales are accounted for separately and IATA does not take them into consideration, so our competitor can declare everything. All I can say is that are still in the leading position and we intend to do so in the future.

W-S.ro: How big do you think is the flight tickets market in Romania?
RS: If we consider IATA affiliated companies, we talk about minim 300 million euro in 2011, excepting the tickets sold directly by companies (including low cost). This year, 8% of this market will be represented by the online segment, 4-5% more than 2010. We own 50-55% of this segment.

W-S.ro: 50-55% is very much, considering the numerous competitors. But if we consider the street agencies, which you do not think of as 100% online, what would be your market share?
RS: Here I can tell you that Happy Tour Group owns, by far, the biggest market share: 12-12%, both online and offline.

W-S.ro: What made this increase of online ticket sale possible?
RS: Well, a new generation grew up. It’s the generation that was raised by fairytales, but by computers. The marketing campaigns deployed by the big sellers for the online market finally paid off. The customers are getting more and more used to buying online goods and, after all, buying a flight ticket is not that different from buying a laptop. Visa or MasterCard campaigns also helped by offering up to 10% discounts for online payments, which is quite something. Despite all this, the online trading/payment in Romania is still far behind. In Poland, for example the online market represents 5% of  2011 GDP.

The main obstacle - comisionul suportat este inca mare

W-S.ro: Which are the main difficulties you’re facing off in the travel industry?
RS: Generally, most of the tickets booked online are for the economy class. For their prices to be attractive, our profit margin is very narrow. That is because the commission you have to support is still big (you have to pay banking fees, online payments processor fees etc. that is 3-4% from the total value of the transaction) Practically this money is lost unless you want to be assured that every transaction is safe and that sensitive data is secured. Of course, you can choose as well a 2% commission but if you want to “sleep tight”  you’ll pay 3% for extra security.

W-S.ro: That means profit margins are very tight.
RS: Yes, arount 2%. You must have a sustained sale volume to cover for all expenses.

W-S.ro: What services and what further developments you have in mind on highly competitive market?
RS: Since June we’ve started to sell travel packages as a charter service, 100% online. Practically, we make our own packages: flight and accommodation, all 100% online. Many of the passengers who purchase travel packages with Paravion.ro are top managers or people from the Diaspora.

W-S.ro: I see… Is there something you haven’t launched, but you are about to?
RS: By the end of Q4 we’ll launch a dynamic package service, in partnership with Amadeus.  Practically, we are goin to offer our customers the possibility to book a hotel while booking a flight ticket and to find convenient "all in one" travel destinations, exclusively online.

W-S.ro: If you had extra 200,000 nonrefundable euro, how would you invest it?
RS: Paravion.ro is financed by GED through Happy Tour. The algorithm is always the same, at least 70% is invested in technology. We have enough ideas to absorb this budget.

W-S.ro: Speaking of technology – how is your mobile platform doing?
RS: We haven’t launched our mobile platform yet, but we will. We haven’t been too hasty about it in Romania because there is hardly any demand for it. For exemple, in Greece, the mobile segment was already launched in 2010 and in the first 3 months 90% of the visits ware just for browsing and no booking was made. Only after intense campaigns a few results were visible.

W-S.ro: What do you fear the most?
RS: Adopting the euro currency. This will be the moment when powerful international players, with superior financial resources will enter the market.

W-S.ro: What your customers complain about, most often?
RS: Many passengers choose to fly with low-cost companies. Sometimes the flights are delayed or even cancelled. We cannot be held responsible for such things and we do encourage the passengers to carefully read the general conditions for transportation, the rights of the passengers, the liability of the low-cost company, the luggage policy of every low-cost company. And they should remember that cheaper is not always better. Even if they travel with an airline company, we advise our passengers to see if it is in their advantage to buy a ticket that can or cannot be modified. Sometimes passengers complain about not having received a visa or for not observing the regulations regarding travelling minors, claims for which we cannot be held responsible.

W-S.ro: Did you have a model to inspire you?
RS: In deed, we’ve had a model and it was the online platform Opodo.com. I like it because is a 100% online business, very well designed and managed. De-a lungul timpului au avut foarte multi actionari.

W-S.ro: What do you advise your customers willing to buy online flight tickets?
RS: The online system is a revolutionary one, so it has rather few drawbacks, yet I advise the passengers to carefully choose the online portal for their booking to avoid unpleasant surprises. I also recommend them not to spend too much time on a webpage with time sensitive sessions so that they don’t have to start all over again the booking process in case the session expired. Another advice is to carefully choose their airline/low-cost company and to understand that the flight ticket is a legal agreement between them and the company.

Despite the fact that all Romanians had to cut their travel budgets and shortened their stay, the main tour operators reported an increased turnover for the last months of the year. The outbound and business travel segments were the most profitable segments for the tour operators while the local hotels expected the local tourists.
Although the seaside hotels reported a diminished revenue and number of customers by 10% compared to the year before, the rest of the hotels got along quite differently. In Bucharest the average hotel occupancy percentage was 47.7 in the first eight months, that is 7.7% more that the corresponding period of the previous year, according to Bucharest Benchmarking Report realized by Fivestar Hospitality audit company.

Bucharest, on the top

Once the occupancy percentage raised, the average fares slightly raised, too reaching 191 lei/night compared to 188 lei in the same period last year. Another very important indicator for the hospitability industry - RevPAR (revenue per available room) - increased from 75 to 92 lei. The data refers to three and four star facilities in Bucharest, most of them not being affiliated to an international chain. “I predict a minimum 45% occupancy and an average fare of 195 lei/night in 2011”, says Sorin Ionescu, managing partner at Fivestar Hospitality.
Even the international chains with national coverage reported increased revenue this year. Hence, the Continental Hotels reported increased turnover by 5% in the first eight months, according to Radu Enache, chairman of Continental Hotels. “The occupancy increased for all classification categories, but we talk about a 2 to 4% level”.

Poor or halted investments

But the RevPAR, says Radu Enache, dropped “because of objective reasons: unprofessional competition we face on many markets corroborated with black market jobs “pay off” in an unconsolidated and poorly regulated market”. Continental Hotels estimated a 21-22 million euro turnover this year. The group announced that any important investments will be halted. “We don’t predict any other investments this year, except for the make-ready investments aimed for the projects and technical documentation intended for our future investments”, says chairman of Continental Hotels. The group owns eight hotels, with a capacity of 1,860 rooms.

Unita Turism, which owns 25 hotels in the country with a capacity of 3,500 rooms, reported a 10% revenue increase between January and August, this year. For this year, the company intends to increase its turnover by 10-12%, up to 42 million lei, according to Josef Goschy, the owner of Unita Turism. He said the company is going to invest about 800,000 euro this year in Hotel Sport in Cluj, adding that this is the right thing to do in a period of recession and taking in account that the facility is close to the new local stadium.

The big ones consolidate

The largest tour operators also reported increased turnover due to the request for business travel and leisure. “In the first eight month of 2011 the consolidated financial result of Happy Tour Group showed a 20% increase (compared to the same period in 2010)”, declared Javier Garcia del Valle, executive vise president/CEO at Happy Tour Group. According to him, all the business segments of the group controlled by the private equity GED recorded better financial results compared to 2010, but the most dynamic segments were the corporate travel and the leisure segments with a 20% turnover advance. The Happy Tour official thinks that this advance was caused by increased demand for services from their business partners and by new contracts”.  In these conditions, the prospects for the financial results at the end of the year are promising. “We appreciate that a consolidated turnover increased by 20-25% is achievable”, says del Valle. Happy Tour Group, which incorporated Prestige Tours this year, does not plan other acquisitions this year; the main focus now is to consolidate the business. “The integration of Prestige Tour in the Happy Tour family, the development of Paravion.ro and the expansion of Happy Tour Group through the network of affiliated agencies are the priorities right now”.

The intern sales dropped by 16%

Eximtur, number 2 on the local market recorded an 18% increase of their turnover in the first eight months, which is more than 100 million lei. “We’ve seen a 30% increase for the ticketing and business travel segments, but for the outgoing sector as well”, declared Lucia Morariu, executive manager at Eximtur. On the other hand, the sales for domestic detonations diminished by 16% compared to same period in 2010. The sales for domestic hotels – 2 stars and below – diminished up to 40%” added Lucia Morariu. Corina Martin, president of ANAT (the National Association of Travel Agencies), pointed out that several tenths of travel agencies were closed this year as well as other big ones. This situation has the potential to generate other crushes.

240,000 jobs in the hospitality industry

What will bring the end of the year? “We hope that the domestic travel industry will grow consistently as long as an afflux of foreign tourists is not expected this year”, says Radu Enache, president of the Hotel Industry Federation (FIHR). “For 2011 we expect approximately 1.26 million foreign tourist, fewer that in 2010. 94% of these tourists came here for leisure, the rest came for business”, says the president of FIHR. He also adds that, overall, the hospitability business in Romania will stagnate. “I don’t think many more jobs will be generated, at least no more than this year”, estimates Radu Enache. He also says that those managers who did't give up their investments plans are still waiting “for clear signs about taxation, predictability, consolidation, fair competition and transparency”.

10% more tourists in spa and treatment resorts
5-10% more tourists visited the spa resorts in the country in the first eight months this year. The revenues also increased with more than 10%, declares Nicu Rădulescu, president of the Association of Spa Tourism Employers (OPTBR), despite the fact that the average stay diminished at 14 days unlike 18 days a few years ago. Nicu Rădulescu points out that most of this year tourists are from Romania, the number of foreign tourists was steady in the last three years.

 Important changes in spending habits

* The Romanians depend more and more on special offers and special programs. The cheapest offers sold first, but without neglecting the quality/price aspect. The accommodation facilities known for the poor quality of their services were generally avoided by tourists.
* A slight increase in the companies’ travel budgets is noticeable, even if every penny is well spent.
* Mani Romanians gave up long vacations and reduced their stay down to just a few days or a weekend.
* Middle-class tourists oriented to city breaks to recharge their batteries and get rid of stress.

Among the largest tour operators selling cruises for the local travel agencies are: MSC, NCL, Norwegian, Princess, Viking Carnival and others. The most luxurious cruise ships, with seven stars cabins, can accommodate more than 1000 people and feature interior and exterior pools, Jacuzzi, hair dresser, medical center even golf terrains and jogging lanes.
This year, the most expensive cruise was sold with 32,000 euro and it was a voyage around the world, all inclusive, according to a top realized by ZF based on data received from travel agencies.
"It is a voyage on the footsteps of the great navigators, starting December 28, this year. The destinations along the itinerary are Savona, Barcelona, St. Lucia, Granada, Cartagena, Acapulco, Los Angeles, Auckland, Wellington,  Sydney, Singapore, Colombo, Bombay and other cities", according to the officials from Happy Tour, the largest travel agency on the local market.
Happy Tour also sold a cruise to family of four which paid 6,800 euro to visit London, Bergen, Hellesylt and Olden (Norway). Another cruise was sold for 5,400 euro for two persons, with the following itinerary: Amsterdam, Berlin, Stockholm, Helsinki, St. Petersburg and Tallinn.
"We’ve sold many cruises for Scandinavia, the British Islands and the Mediterranean Sea with prices between 1,700 and 2,000 euro", declared Alexandra Galupa, travel advisor at Happy Tour.

What makes a cruise more or less expensive?
The prices for a cruise differ a lot, depending on the company, the cabin type (interior/exterior view, terrace/balcony, suite, presidential suite), the time of the year, the length of stay and the time of booking. The prices are smaller if a booking is made in advance as the cabin prices are based on availability.
"The Romanians did not give up cruises, but they choose the promotional packages. If last year we had customers paying 30,000-45,000 for a cruise, this year the most expensive cruise was 15,000 euro", declared Ioan Băsea, representing the agency croaziere.net (Key Office company) found in 2005, when this cruise market was in its early stages.
Now the cruise market is estimated at 5 million euro, considers Băsea, who sold 4,000 cruises last years.
The most expensive cruise sold by croaziere.net cost 15,000 euro and included visiting the Norwegian fiords and British islands. The price included 12 nights in a four star cabin, six meals a day (main meals plus snacks) and entertainment.
 
More, but cheaper
Although very popular home in USA, where a lot of people afford them, regardless of their age or social status, in Romania the tourists are barely starting to experience the charm of cruises.
"This year a couple paid 10,000 euro for cruise in central Mediterranean ", said Băsea. He claims he sold more cruises this year, but cheaper compared to the last year. Aerotravel also sold several cruises for 4,000 euro each. The most expensive cruise cost 6,060 euro a person for the following itinerary: Italy, Tunis, Spain, France for 8 nights in august, according to Irina Medrea, marketing specialist at Aerotravel. The second most expensive cruise cost 5,178 euro a person for 8 nights around the Norwegian fiords. The third most expensive cruise cost 4,988 euro for 8 nights around Italy, Greece, Tunis and Croatia.
"The demand for cruises is increasing; they’ve become a popular product because they let you visit many places in a short period of time. The most wanted were the seven days cruises on the Mediterranean Sea and on the Caribbean Sea, too", claims Ana Maria Moanţă,  marketing manager at Marshal Turism. This travel agency sold a 4,500 euro cruise in the Caribbean area (Florida, Bahamas) for nine nights. A couple bought a 4,500 euro cruise to visit Egypt, Oman and Arab Emirates. Another expensive cruise cost 3,000 euro in the Norwegian fiords, Estonia and Denmark.
1,000 euro for a cruise on the Mediterranean Sea
According to Perfect Tours, 40% of the most wanted cruises were on the Mediterranean Sea, 30% were on the Caribbean Sea (including transatlantic) and 20% were on the Norwegian fiords, the Baltic Sea.
Perfect Tour sold 250 cruises, for a total amount of 250,000 de euro.
"A seven days cruise on the Mediterranean Sea can be bought for 1,000 euro per person as opposed to the more expensive voyage around the world that cost 20.000 euro per person", added the representatives of Perfect Tour.

 
In two years of crisis (2010-2011), the Spanish private equity GED (which owns Happy Tour) signed three successive transactions in order to consolidate its integrated travel business: online flight tickets sale (paravion.ro), luxury travel packages (Travel House) and holidays (Prestige Tours).
"The purpose of these acquisitions was to consolidate our entire business segments. Now our focus is on consolidating the local operations. I don’t think other acquisitions are necessary ", said Javier Garcia del Valle, CEO and vice president of Happy Tour, in an interview to ZF.
With a consolidated turnover of 43 million euro following the last year’s transactions (Paravion and Travel House), Happy Tour is now the largest player in a market estimated at 500 million euro. And the company’s business keeps growing.
"In the first months of this year our revenues increased by 20% due to an increasing portfolio of customers. We try to make all our synergies work for the best", said del Valle, who coordinates a team of 140 people.

Reduced costs and tight profit margins
Last year, the Spanish private equity GED bought 80% of travel agency Travel House, a company selling luxury packages for local and international destinations. In 2009, Travel House had a 6 million euro turnover and a net profit of 110,000 euro.
In 2009, the private equity also bought Paravion.ro, the largest online travel agency founded by Millennium Tour in 2005.
In April, this year, GED also signed a transaction: the acquisition of the tour operator Prestige Tours owed by Mircea Vladu, a local businessman.
GED did not change the name of the newly acquired companies. They operate as independent entities from Happy Tour, not as competitors but as a way of consolidating the business of Happy Tour.
"The percent of holidays will grow in the light of the new acquisition, Prestige Tours. With this transaction, we reduced the risk of being “uncovered” during the summer season when people are looking mostly for leisure packages." The vice president of Happy Tour explained that not only the sales are important, but the operational profits are especially important. "We must be sure that we generate business with the minimum amount of costs."
35,000 euro, the most expensive holiday
Happy Tour Group has more than 1,000 customers, 100 of which generate 35,000 euro revenues alone each year, according to the company manager. "This year we organized 2,500 corporate events, 30% less than last year. The price, though, continues to be a key element for a company when it comes to making a decision." The corporate segment (flight tickets and hotel rooms) generates 55% of the total revenues, while MICE (meetings, incentives, conferences and events) represent 7% of the total revenues. The holidays have a 15% share and the rest of the revenue is brought by resellers.
One of the most expensive holidays was sold by Happy Tour to a Romanian executive for 35,000 euro. Javier Garcia del Valle says that the company sold several packages for about 10,000 euro each.

Expansion of the associated agencies
By the end of the year Happy Tour will have 60 selling points. One of the objectives is the expansion of the national network of associated travel agencies.
Today the group operates through a network of 27 agencies in 24 cities like Cluj-Napoca (Calibra Travel), Piatra-Neamţ (Petro Tour), Iaşi (Travel 4 You), Bacău (Inter Tour şi V Travel), Braşov (Simply Tour & Travel), Focşani (Ager Tour) and others. "We select the best partners in the country.” The competition is tight among the travel agencies on the market. The main competitors of Happy Tours are Eximtur, a family owned company in Cluj, Marshall Turism, Aerotravel, J'Info Tours or Perfect Tour.