Eximtur's revenues slightly down in nine months while business travel sees revival

Romanian travel agency Eximtur posted a turnover of EUR 22 million in the first nine months of this year, down 2.65 percent on the same period of last year, according to the company. Eximtur posted a EUR 26.7 million turnover last year. The domestic travel segment dropped by 20 percent, while external travel was also down 1 percent. Business travel however reported a growth of 10 percent, covering almost half of Eximtur's revenues during this period. The ticketing activity and the business travel segment show some revival mainly due to calmer external markets, which have slightly refreshed the companies' travel budgets. External travel was down in value but in fact the number of Romanian tourists having chosen external travel packages was up while the cost of these packages was discounted. The main destinations for Romanian travelers were Turkey – over 25 percent of the sales, Greece, Bulgaria, Croatia, Austria, Egypt, Spain. Domestic tourism had seen a comeback by April, but went down during the months of summer, being also affected by the unfavorable weather. “The general travel market is down by at least 10 percent this year compared to last year,” according to Lucia Morariu, general manager of Eximtur. Eximtur is the second largest travel agency in Romania turnover wise, after Happy Tour. editor@romania-insider.com