The interview of the week with Mr.Marius Iscru – Manager of the Travel Agency VERA TRAVEL

1.infotravelromania.ro: When did it open your agency and what is it specialized on?
M.I.: The tourism agency VERA TRAVEL opened in 2003 and is relative new on the market, but the employees have an intense tourism activity and they are true professionals in the domain. The VERA TRAVEL agency offers a complete set of touristy services, as reservations and tickets to hotels (or other forms of housing) in Europe and whole the world for the lowest prices, journeys and trips in the main resorts or cities of the world, housing and individual or group touristy programs, recommended or at the request of the client, housing vouchers for the Romanian tourists who are traveling abroad, medical insurances, flying tickets, bus tickets for the main destinations in Europe, information and touristy assistance.
The VERA TRAVEL agency is specialized in offering tourists quality hotels at the lowest prices, in the country and abroad. Because of the low prices practiced by our agency, our target is the tourists with small and medium budget, but we can also offer 5 star services or business.

2.infotravelromania.ro: which are the main external destinations demanded by Romanian tourists in the present what are news and the surprises for this season?
M.I.: The most requested destinations are, as in the last year, Greece, Turkey, Italy because of the distance not so big beside Romania, so the transport is cheaper, but also because of the very attractive prices practiced in he hotels, here I mean Turkey and Greece, where there are prices under the tariffs from the Romanian hotels with the same rating. Not to talk about the net superior facilities and the cleanness in the resorts. Talking about news, this year I can say that the tourists are orientated to locations less exotic from Europe, here I mean Cyprus, Malta or other islands from the Greek archipelago less visited. A surprise of this season is the migration of the Romanian tourists to the Bulgarian sea sight, Albena being on the top of the preferences. The cause for this migration is of course the misery of the Romanian sea sight and that is why our tourists are looking for alternatives near home.

3.infotravelromania.ro: Do you think that in the present Mamaia, Neptun or Olimp represent a real concurrence for the external tourism?
M.I.: In the present, certainly they are not, because of the estate of the resorts. There are o lot of investment to make into the Romanian sea sight resorts, in hotels and amusement parks. We have to renovate the existing ones and to bring them to the European levels, to maintain them clean (the biggest problem of Romanian tourists) and we have to decrease the prices, because over the past years the prices are inexcusably too big for some indecent facilities.

4.infotravelromania.ro: which are the differences between a 2-3 star hotel in Greece or Turkey and a similar hotel on the Romanian sea sight?
M.I.: The differences are big enough especially to the 2-3 star hotels, but there are exceptions. The 4-5 star hotels are providing almost the same facilities because the luxury hotels from Romania were completely renovated or there are new buildings providing services for the foreign tourists and the 3 star hotels are more accessible to the Romanian tourists, but unfortunately most of them are in a terrible estate. Passing through the housing conditions, is very important the way that the employees of the hotels are treating the tourists, and at that chapter the Greeks and Turkish are ideal hosts and at some of the restaurants you can find even Romanian menus!

5.infotravelromania.ro: how much will it cost a journey in Greece (for example) in September in a 3 star hotel?
M.I.: In September are the most accessible prices for a trip abroad. The VERA TRAVEL agency has a trip to Greece – Olympic Beach, for 206 €/person, 7 nights in a double room in Korali Hotel, including breakfast. The price includes the bus transport.

6.infotravelromania.ro: Do you think that this year the request for external tourism will increase over the last year? Why?
M.I.: I don’t think this request will increase because the budget of Romanian people didn’t got bigger than the last year. The request for external tourism will be the same. Only the preferred destination may change between Romanian tourists with bigger budget, because they have seen the main destination in Europe and they hope to discover more exotic places. The low and medium budget tourists do not dispose of resources for a trip abroad, even there are Romanian people who are borrowing from the banks especially for this kind of trips abroad, but there are very few.

7.infotravelromania.ro: There are any destinations with visa problems or other kind of unpleasant situations caused by laws?
M.I.: At this moment there are still laborious the procedures for obtaining the visa for the Great Britain, Serbia, Ukraine and Russia.

8.infotravelromania.ro: do you advice the tourists to prepare ahead such a trip? They could have the unpleasant surprise not to find tickets if they decide to go one – two weeks before?
M.I.: For the usual Europe destination they could make reservations 1-2 weeks before, because there is no need of a visa.
For the special destinations, where there is a visa requested, I recommend all the tourists to make group reservation or to complete the forms of housing at the tourism agency one month before leaving, to avoid the eventual surprises with the visa. For The Great Britain I recommend to complete the forms even 2-3 before.

Vera Travel
31,Nicolae Grigorescu Avenue, bl. N1, ap.86, sector 3, Bucharest, Romania
Telefon/ fax: + 4 - 021 - 341.19.36 | info@veratravel.ro|www.veratravel.ro
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