Eximtur this year will derive turnover worth 25 million euros despite the steep decline domestic tourism has been witnessing in 2006, believes Lucia Morariu, general manager of the travel agency.
Eximtur reported turnover worth 20 million euros in 2005. In order to maintain the company's pace of growth, Lucia Morariu has decided not only to increase the number of agencies located in major cities, but also to expand onto the Internet and earmark an advertising budget that should allow the company to efficiently promote its products.
"All these strategies are not only meant to help the company maintain the same growth pace, but will also develop on the market next year, as after EU accession, tourism through unions will disappear and tour-operators expect demand for domestic travel to drop even further for 2007," stated the general manager of Eximtur.
In the opinion of Lucia Morariu, Romanian tourism continues to bank on business travel, boasting a 70% growth potential, as well as on the finalisation of projects that are under construction, such as the completion of work on the Sun highway.
"We are trying to counter the overall market decline, which has, at least on the seaside, come to 35-40%. Our target is to reach at least last year's level in terms of sales and we will keep up our position by raising the number of agencies. We opened the agency in Timisoara North in 2005, but because it's located in a mall-type space it does not yielded notable results. However, the agency in Oradea fares very well. In the first year of activity, this agency reached the level of the Baia Mare agency and we believe it will have a solid contribution to turnover. The new agency in Bucharest has also posted positive results and we intend to open a second agency there this year," stated the general manager of Eximtur.
One of the markets that has the biggest growth potential for Eximtur is Bucharest. "We derive growth by 58% on this market, not due to market growth, but because we have lured customers from competitors," adds Lucia Morariu.
One of Eximtur's strategies is to direct part of orders to the web page.
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