Business or leisure? The question is increasingly being used in hotels, resorts, or even on travel related and booking websites. However, travel agencies in Romania focus a lot more on holiday travels rather than business trips, even though the number of firms, multinationals and corporations in the country has grown steadily in recent years. Obviously, along with them, the number of businessmen and corporate representatives that need to get from one city to another, from one country to another, also rose significantly.
In this regard, one must acknowledge that business tourism does not represent a solitary individual, with a suit and tie, who pulls a trolley from one side to another. Business tourism also means conferences, retreats, team-buildings and so on. Thus, when it comes to entire departments or even whole companies, profits may become attractive for the agencies offering and organizing such activities, but even so, the number of travel firms that have a specialized division in this direction is quite limited.
Why does this happen? Probably because serving business clients is a much more demanding job than that of handling leisure clients. Basically, businesses men need a travel service tailored specifically for their needs. On the corporate side this translates into a very short reaction time, adaptability and flexibility, as travel dates and conditions could change along the way. By default, this also entails constant availability for optimizing the trip, potential additional services at the destination, and perhaps even a 24/7 service for assistance and reservations.
Moreover, business contracts are most likely signed at an institutional level, which means that the travel agency in question must live up to certain logistical, technological and financial standards. Moreover, if certain mishaps are more or less tolerated when it comes to individual vacation travelers, when you are dealing with a corporation, things tend to get a lot tenser when an error occurs. In this sense, the agency’s staff which caters to corporate clients must automatically be at a certain level of performance and this obviously implies further investments on account of the travel agency.
Consequently, in this market, it seems that there is hardly any room for small players, as they either cannot afford such a business or they are simply unprepared for the requirements of such a niche. Consequently, the big Romanian agencies such as Eximtur, Eurolines or Paralella 45 are among the few which have dared to test this market, being supplemented by agencies that are part of a larger international structure or that have focused on this niche since their foundation: among them we can mention New Concept Travel (founded in 1993), part of American Express Global Business Travel, or Happy Tour, supported by GED (Spanish investment fund), or New Business Travel (founded in 1992).
True, the marketplace for business travel seems quite small, but no one can deny that corporate travel is growing in Romania and that profits may be hefty, especially since businessmen and corporates tend to have much larger budgets than regular travelers.
Sources: Startours.ro (foto)
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