Romania: Bad Roads or Lack of Promotion?

[IMG=20618-6397]On August 1rs the Head of the National Romanian Tourism Organization, Ovidiu Mariann, submitted resignation, Financial News reported. According to him, at the moment the situation in the Romanian destination is far from a success – tourist prefer other countries for holidays, thus a number of tourist traveling to Romania is decreasing. Among the reasons for low demand old hotels, untrained personnel and shabby roads were enumerated. Before resignation Ovidiu Mariann was interviewed by Capital. In the interview he emphasized that local hoteliers do not invest into development of Romanian hotels, but wait for the country to enter the European Union to raise prices. After this Romania hoteliers demanded Mariann to leave his post. Travel market players divided opinions towards the resignation of Ovidiu Mariann. Thus, Russian tour operators which specialize in the Romanian destination consider it to be positive. Pavel Borodin, General Director of Zhivie Kluchi, commented on the situation as follows: ‘Ovidiu Mariann was far from tourism, he did not support the interests of travel market players. Therefore, his resignation will non affect the situation in the Romanian travel market. Moreover, his statements are not justified by the current situation. Everything is not that bad! At present Romania is developing as a travel destination, it is in higher demand every year. Comparing to last year the tourist flow to Romania has increased by 25–30%’. Nevertheless, in July the demand for Romania was low and consolidators of a weekly charter – Zhivie Cluchi and PAKS Travel Company – had to change Boeing – 757 for less capacious TU-204. Travel market professionals explain low demand for Romania resorts by the new rules adopted by the Romanian Consulate upon which visa applications from both travel companies and individual persons are accepted in one section. Therefore, they could not cope with high work load. Besides, starting from July documents have been accepted two weeks in advance before the departure date that evidently affected the tourist flow to the country. Furthermore, Elena Markelova, Sales and Marketing Director of Balkan Express, pointed out: ‘one more Romanian problem is minimum promotional support of the destination and lack of advertising but not bad roads, hotels and personnel. It is necessary to popularize the destination which is rich in travel opportunities and highly perspective. May be a new Head of the Romanian Tourism Organization will deal with this?’.