Romanian travel company Christian Tour plans further expansion abroad

Romanian tour operator Christian Tour plans to expand to new markets in Central and Eastern Europe, namely Hungary, Serbia, and Poland, according to a company statement. The branches will operate under the Christian tour brand. Moreover, the company wants to operate charter flights from these three countries to known tourist destinations in Greece, Turkey, and Spain. “We started investing in travel agencies abroad in 2012, with Memento Turkey, which was followed shortly by Memento Spain. In early 2014, it was time to enter the hotel market in Greece, and at the end of the same year, we opened the first travel agency under the Christian Tour brand abroad, in Chisinau. We’ve been successful on all these markets and we have accumulated significant experience and expertise in both outgoing and ingoing tourism,” said Cristian Pandel, founder and majority shareholder of Christian Tour. Cristian and Marius Pandel’s tourism business in Greece, Turkey and Spain recorded a turnover of some EUR 7.5 million in 2014. “This summer, we started operating the first charter flights from Chisinau to Greece. The success we had in this market (we've had occupancy rates of over 90% in the first departures) made us focus our expansion strategy to other countries in the region,” said Marius Pandel, Christian Tour CEO. Poland, Serbia, Hungary and the Czech Republic are among the main markets in the region that send increasingly more tourists to Greece and Turkey. This was confirmed by both incoming tourism agencies and hoteliers in these countries. Christian Tour, as the owner of a 4-star resort in Corfu Island, namely Memento Kasioppi Resort, confirmed the same trend. The resort in Corfu mainly attracts tourists from the Czech Republic, Poland, Romania, and the UK. Christian Tour and the companies in its group ended 2014 with a turnover of EUR 62 million. Christian Tour currently owns 30 agencies in Romania and a branch in Chisinau. It employs some 168 people. Romanian tour operator Christian Tour enters corporate segment. Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com