Business Ideas in Romania

Taking service to a higher level in Romanian tourism…

• Posted by Magda on October 14th, 2006 filed in Tourism and travel

Opportunity: High quality/price offerings for tourism in Romania

Hotel chains or boutiques and restaurants at all price levels who can implement consistent service standards stand to gain a loyal repeat clientele. Both locals and tour groups are willing and able to pay a premium for quality. Romanian tourists now have higher available incomes, yet find they must leave the country to find better service relative to price - even though many would prefer shorter travel and service in their own language.

The number of customers from internal and international tour operators for Romanian tourism is high, but their demands are also high: they want better service, more flexible options to choose from, and competitive prices. They only want what’s normal, but achieving this normality is a challenge for many current Romanian hotel and restaurant owners. That’s not to say you could not find every once in a while a nice place with a high standard of service and competitive quality of food. But those are mostly run by foreign people/companies or by Romanians who have traveled or lived in a western country and have a better understanding of the benefits of treating their customers right. Most hotels are owned by people looking to make an easy buck, with no experience or knowledge to efficiently manage the operation. This is why hotels on the Black Sea Coast changed owners an average of three times over the last 10-15 years.

For most Romanian tourism operators, this was a very tough year. At the top of a long list of reasons are the low level of service and the price/quality balance. At the same time, Bulgaria received a strong infusion of foreign capital, mostly German, catapulting it into a strong competitive position for Romanian summer resorts. Romania responded with a weak, inefficient strategy to promote internal tourism.

This is a historic pattern for Romanian tourism: every ten years there is a bad year followed by a revitalization. So, we expect to see a strong comeback over the next few years, as hotel owners rethink their strategies. Some look into closing stronger deals with the tour operators and improving their pricing strategies and levels of service; others will get out of this business.

The future looks bright! The Romanian government recently started an aggressive campaign of branding and advertising internal tourism and the ease of travel is improving through new highways and train infrastructures. Furthermore, new charter and commercial airlines provide more flights then ever to several Romanian airports - for example, Delta just announced a non-stop from New York City, while Blue Air, a discount carrier, connects Bucharest to many large and medium sized European cities.

A new multi-lane auto route and upgraded train service from Bucharest to Constanta will better connect the seaside to a city of 2.5 million and another international airport. Every European capital will soon be within 3 to 8 hours of travel time to the Black Sea resorts.

With improving infrastructure, increased demand and Romania soon becoming a EU member, there is an extraordinary opportunity for those who want to invest in Romanian tourism… provided they offer a high level of service.