Tourism: Over half of the Romanians mean to go on holiday at least twice a year

Over half of the Romanians mean to go on holiday at least twice a year in the next years, according to a study published by a platform for hotel booking.‘Despite the major damage created by corona to the tourism industry, (…) the players in the industry in the region of Central and Eastern Europe are optimistic with regard to the future. It is a moderate optimism, based on the opinion surveys made over the last period among tourists from Hungary, the Czech Republic, Poland and Romania. They showed an increased availability to travel, the statistics showing a rise in international travel over the next 2 or 3 years. Moreover, according to the study, 75% of the Romanians want to travel more than in the pre-pandemics period over the next 3 to 4 years to destinations abroad, over 50% of the interviewees stating they will go on holiday at least twice per year” mentions the press release sent by Szallas Group which owns the hotel booking platform Travelminit.ro.At the same time, over half of the tourists interviewed stated they intend to travel to at least to one of the countries in the region, mentioning most often such states as Hungary, Croatia or Bulgaria.The analysis shows the fact that almost all Romanian tourists interviewed stated they want to benefit from the possibility to cancel free of charge even after the end of the pandemics. At the same time, 97% of the participants to the study stated that they will value hygiene and social distancing measures which are applied in hospitality facilities where they plan to spend their holiday, and 95% would prefer to be able to change the travel dates without supplementary costs. Similar preferences had the tourists from the rest of the world analysed in the study.  As regards the essential aspects the tourists take into consideration when they book holidays abroad, it is the place where the hospitality facility is (distance from the central area, from transport means and from touristic sights interesting to them) price per night and reviews from the former hosts to the facility.In case of the Romanian tourists, these aspects are almost unchanged and as regards the domestic travel there appears the availability of a parking lot near the hotel. In exchange, for the tourists from Hungary, the possibility to acquire accommodation with demi pension meal is first in the decision-making process of booking, those from the Czech Republic are more interested in SPA services, parking lot and availability of breakfast in the hotel than in the price, while the Poles have similar preferences to the Romanian ones.On the other hand, at present only 26% of the bookings made by the Romanian tourists are made online, 40% prefer to make bookings by phone. At the other end is Hungary, where over 90% of the domestic bookings are made digitally, while the percentage of bookings online in Croatia is 65%, that in the Czech Republic is 60% and in Poland, 54% of the bookings are online.Starting with 2017, Travelminit is one of the biggest players on the market of hotel bookings in Romania. The Travelminit portfolio covers 7,500 hospitality facilities in Romania – hotels, boarding houses, apartments. The company is leader on the bookings with holiday vouchers. Starting with 2020, Travelminit is part of Szallas Group which has in its portfolio six major platforms in central and Eastern Europe (Romania, Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic and Croatia) with sales of over 150 million euro and over 350 employees.