Eximtur sees 30% drop in plane ticket sales

Cluj-based Eximtur, one of the biggest travel agencies on the market, with 40.5m-euro turnover in 2008, posted a 30% drop in plane ticket sales in the first half of the year, compared with the year-ago period. This segment generated almost 45% of the company’s turnover in 2008. "Corporate budgets for business travel went down and therefore ticketing receipts have been shrinking. There are no chances for us to grow on this segment, but we do have chances on the segment of domestic travel," said Lucia Morariu, Eximtur general manager and shareholder. Despite Morariu seeing in domestic travel a chance to keep turnover at last year’s level, in the first 6 months the company also saw a 25% decline on this segment. The situation improved in July, when the gap narrowed to just 15%. "August is expected to generate four times bigger sales from July on the segment of domestic travel. We will wait and see what happens".