Romanians developing taste for cruise holidays after prices fall: 7,000 orders

Around 7,000 Romanians went on a cruise holiday last year, while worldwide 17.5 million people worldwide choose to spend their holidays on cruising ships every year.

"We are investing and as a matter of fact all our rivals are investing on the Romanian market. Travel is among the fields with the highest potential in Romania, even during a crisis, and in 2011 we expect it to rise by around 8-9%," says Giovanni Ponticelli, the representative for Romania of MSC Cruises.

Taking into account an average price of a cruise of 600-700 euros (not including transport from Romania to the boarding harbour), it results that Romanians last year spent over 4m euros on such holidays, according to ZF calculations.

Cruises are gradually starting to no longer be a privilege of millionaires or "wealthy" pensioners, after the crisis has forced operators to slash prices so as not to lose their clients and moreover to attract a series of other potential tourists.