Nov. 11–BUCHAREST — Rates for Romanian seaside tourist packages will be by 5 — 8 percent higher in 2014, following the 5 percent decrease in the number of tourists this year, vice-president of the Romanian Tourism Employers Federation (FPTR) Dragos Raducan told a conference dedicated to the presentation of the autumn edition of the Romanian Tourism Fair.
‘We literally don’t know what prices to charge for 2014 and we hope that the increase by 5-8 percent is enough to cover the host of taxes hotel owners have to pay, as well as fiscal instability. Nobody knows what his actual payment liabilities will be in 2014. Currently about 70% of hotel assets are up for sale and if good offers come up, this percentage could go even higher. Doing performance is hard when a manager spends almost 80% of his time reading to get updated and apply what’s new in legislation. If the VAT on foodstuff served in hotel restaurants dropped from 24% to 9%, the number of Romanians dining in these restaurants would increase by at least 30%,’ said Dragos Raducan.
More than 200 companies from Romania, Austria, Bulgaria, Egypt, Germany, India, Indonesia, Jordan, Israel, Italy, the Republic of Moldova, Slovakia, Poland, Turkey and Hungary will participate between November 14 — 17 in the 30th edition of Romania’s Tourism Fair, displaying their offer of innovative travel goods and services on an area of approximately 10,500 sqm.
‘The participants’ investment for the current edition of the fair amounts to approximately 1.5 million euros. Unfortunately, this is rather an image investment because most Christmas and New Year travel offers for Romanian destinations have already been exhausted. Offers in this period will predominantly be for out-of-the-country destinations. However, if we make a comparison between the New Year holiday offer for the Romanian and the Bulgarian seaside, the internal destination appears at a net advantage — it is cheaper and the entertainment is better too,’ said Raducan.
