Marshal Turism travel agency, one of the top three players on this market, announced its intention to invest 10 million euros to acquire a plot of land and construct a four-star hotel upon it, located in Sector 1 of the Romanian capital city.
"We want to buy a plot of around 2,000 square metres and will invest 2 million euros to this end," stated Ion Antonescu, manager and owner of Marshal travel agency.
According to him, the money comes from the sale of land located in the Piata Victoriei area. "I''ve worked for 30 years in tourism and there''s a need for new hotels in Bucharest," said Antonescu. He specified that the new hotel would have about 100 rooms and would target business travel. Antonescu expects the location, to be called Hotel Marshal, to be opened in about 2-3 years.
The Marshal agency also has a five-year contract for the rental of Batistei Hotel, belonging to the state, and Antonescu says he plans, when this period expires, to similarly acquire this hotel. Regarding the Batistei Hotel, which is also set to adopt the Marshal name, the agency will invest one million euros in renovation works, to bring it from a two-star, to a three-star hotel. The Batistei Hotel will also target the business travel segment. Antonescu says that renovation works will start in January 2006 and the hotel will be opened in May of the same year.
Marshal Turism registered turnover of around 50 million RON (13.7 million euros) in the first nine months and forecasts turnover of 60 million RON (16.4 million euros) for the entire year. "We''ve seen overall solid growth this year and in particular we''ve sold five times more New Year''s Eve Party packages than in previous years," added Antonescu. According to him, in 2005 medium-income customers mostly sought destinations such as Turkey, Greece, Crete, Palma de Majorca and Rhodes, while customers with above-average incomes bought packages to Thailand, Dubai, Austria, Italy, France. "We cashed 400,000 euros from these packages alone. Warm regions are in demand this year," the Marshal representative added. He also specified that 80% of the activities carried out by the travel agency are based on outgoing tourism. Marshal Turism derived turnover standing at 13.8 million euros in 2004. andreea.groenendijk@zf.ro
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