May 2010

Happy Tour To Buy Online Ticket Shop
The Spanish investment fund GED, owner of Happy Tour travel agency, has bought for an estimated half a million Euro the internet ticket shop Paravion.ro. Happy Tour was hit hard by the economic crisis: sales fell by 42 percent to 29 million Euro. The Spanish are not the only ones interested in Romanian Internet service providers: at the beginning of last April, Polisk investmend fund bought the Romanian travel portal turismguide.ro. GED is still involved in the printing with Info Press, in the diagnostic laboratory Diamedix, as well as in the provider of energy saving products Total Energy Business, and the security company Rosegur but also in the mobile phone operator Fonomat.

April 2010

Poland Bought Romanian Online Travel Portal
The Polish e-commerce provider Netmedia.pl seems to be highly confident in the potential of the Romanian market for online travel bookings. The Poles bought in early April the Romanian developer of a travel portal (www.turismguide.ro to), with 375,000 new visitors last March one of the most visited websites in Romania. The site was founded in 2003, originally to promote hotels and restaurants in Romania Prahova Valley. This developed into a portal that offers nationwide promotion and today has its own booking system. Netmedia allegedly paid 160,000 Euro for participation in the form of a share capital increase.

March 2010

Niki Lauda Connects Bucharest And Vienna Through Own Flight Company
Ex-Formula 1 racing driver Niki Lauda already flew eleven times his own FlyNiki jets between Vienna and Bucharest now since early February this year. In addition to the four times Formula 1 World Champion Alain Prost, who appeared for Renault's Romanian subsidiary Dacia in Bucharest in March, Niki Lauda was the second Formula 1 icon to visit Bucharest. Lauda's appearance however, was more selfish, it served for the launch of its new low-cost airline, Niki Luftfahrt GmbH. Air Berlin holds a 49 per cent interest in the company. Since early February FlyNiki flies daily between Bucharest and Vienna. Starting with next year, the connection is to be expanded to two flights a day. Other destinations in Romania are also not excluded.

February 2010

Romanians Love Austria And Vienna As Tourists
According to a survey by the Vienna Tourist Board, Romanians have booked 272,000 nights in the city of Vienna last year. They have spent almost 10 million Euro, and lie in tenth place in an international comparison of the most generous tourists. However, the number of bookings has declined over the previous year by 13 per cent. Therefore, the Tourist Board of the City of Vienna this year will not only increase its campaigning for the town (the advertising budget is allegedly 14 million Euro), a collaboration with state owned Austrian Airlines AUA is also on the menu: AUA is to attract tourists with larger planes and cheaper fares. Austria also is a popular travel destination for Romanians, especially in winter. Good prices and best services were convincing. The Romanian Workers Association Cartel Alfa decided to try to fight at least against the last argument. Between March and November 2010 about 1,000 managers from the hospitality sector will be trained with EU funds (a total of 5 million Euro).

January 2010

Tour Operators Expect Stagnation In 2010, With Prices
After a slump in sales of 20 per cent last year - mainly because of price reductions - travel agencies expect this year a growth of 5 to 10 per cent. This year, prices are likely to freeze and accent to be put on the demand for deals in Greece, Turkey and Bulgaria, this is what the agencies expect. Last year, the tour operators member of the Romanian Association of Tour Operators sold 1.2 million packages for travels abroad, and about 3 million packages for domestic travelers. The main target of winter travelers was Austria.