The occupancy of the hotels on the Romanian Black Sea Coast amounted to 60% during the recently concluded summer season, down some 14% from last year, the National Association of Travel Agencies in Romania (ANAT) yesterday announced.
"The dwindling purchasing power of the people in Romania, the poor quality of the services provided in the previous years, as well as certain mistakes in the pricing policy were the main causes for the take-up decline," Cornel Gaina, ANAT chairman, said.
Another reason for the drop in the occupancy rate was the fact that the holidays abroad have become attractive for many Romanians along with the insufficient promotion of the Romanian hotels. As for the foreign tourists, they have cheaper offers from other countries that can also provide higher quality touristic services. All this while many hotels on the Romanian Black Sea Coast upped their tariffs in euros, a step European tour-operators find no justification for.
The take-up throughout June-September ranged between 33-85%. The highest take-up was registered by the Venus resort (79%), followed by Eforie Sud (67.5%), Mamaia (65%), Eforie Nord (62%) and Neptun (44%).
The hotel that saw the highest occupancy rate was the Aurora Hotel in Mamaia (96%). The laggards in this regard were Covasna Estival 2002 (33%), and Turist (33%) both of them located in Neptun.
In order to fix the problems the hotel operators are facing, ANAT decided to have this year's exchange during which the hotels' summer season offer is contracted organised six months earlier than in the previous years.
Subsequently, this event took place between September 22-25 as proposed by the ANAT, with contracts signed between the hotel operators on the Black Sea Coast and the Romanian travel agencies for 2004. The tariffs for 2005 were discussed on this occasion, as well.
"A 2004 season under the same auspices as those in 2003 and with the same marketing policy applied would make a dramatic impact on the tourism industry. The organisation of the contract exchange as early as September will allow for brochures to be published in good time, for travel agencies and hotels to advertise their offers and for collecting down payments from clients in order to prepare for the opening of the summer season mainly," Gaina said.
Another proposition made by ANAT is improving the usage of the seaside by expanding the seaside holiday period from May 1 to September 30. ANAT suggested to have May and September as promotional months, with the tariffs charged set at 25-40% of the peak season's tariffs. It also proposed to charge 40-60% of the peak season's tariffs in June and between August 20-31 and possibly have special offers the "get 10 days for the price of 7" type. georgiana.stavarache@zf.ro
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