Romanians acquire taste for off-season holidays

Romanian tourists have started to enjoy off-season holidays, where travel agencies and hotel operators lower holiday prices, making them all the more attractive. Expenses made by Romanians for holidays abroad reached a historic high of 127 million euros last year in September, with a 90 million-euro average in the summer months of 2006, according to data published by the National Bank. "This preference of Romanians to go on holiday in September is a trend we noticed as early as '94-'95. There are multiple reasons for this; travel packages are cheaper, temperatures in Southern Europe are a little lower, and after September 15th, there is a second wave of discounts from hotel operators, and also from travel agents as well," explains Aurel Pavel, general manager of J'Info Tours travel agency. Las t year, inflows of tourism-generated foreign currency exceeded 1 billion euros for the first time in history, up 21% against 2005. Players in the field (hotel operators, carriers and travel agencies) believe the biggest share of this sum is accounted for by business travel, which contributed about 65% to the sums collected from tourism nationally. 'If we are talking about the big cities, the share held by businesspeople in tourism-generated returns is of around 75%, while in Bucharest this share can reach up to 87%," says Paul Marasoiu, president of the hotel consulting company Peacock Hotels.