I have always been a fan of vacations with an exotic touch, taking you to countries far away. What you know of such places is a mix of what you have read and what others have told you, the photos you've seen and local works of art, and all that mix of bits of information still is unable to make it all less than a breathtaking experience. Australia would be such a country.
You could benefit from cheap hotels in Australia with just a few clicks. But not anywhere in Australia! As the heat is easier to take when a cool breeze is all around you, I am speaking about Surfers' Paradise. That is right, Gold Coast hotels are waiting for you.
Run a quick search by number of starts, pick from the recommended hotels or simply enter your arrival and departure dates and see what's available. Most hotels have their prices listed, but some of them offer price information on request only, which is not something I am a big fan of. I do always recommend and support having your site translated when you're dealing with customers from around the world, and Hotel Club does just that.
If you decide to embark on such an adventure, I recommend you stop by the forum. Get travel details and useful tips and make sure nothing takes you by surprise.
Why would you choose Brisbane, Australia, as your travel destination? Well, have your pick of reasons: beautiful sceneries, exotic animals, the beautiful cheap hotels in Brisbane. Everything is there, waiting for you. Would you like to experience a breath-taking view of the city? Then drive to the top of Mt. Coot-tha Lookout to see the entire Brisbane at your feet. Do you feel like having a glamorous looking cocktail while laying in the sun and listening to the waves? Then go to the beaches of South Bank. While there, should you feel like doing more cultural activities, I recommend the Cultural Centre. Take this opportunity to visit the Queensland Art Museum and the Gallery of Modern Art. As you see, options for all tastes and types of tourists. When you decide to spend you next vacation there, make sure you book your stay at one of the Brisbane Hotels. To make sure your Hotel Accommodation in Brisbane is worthwhile, choose whatever you like by sorting the offers by number of stars, location or price. And if I've convinced you to leave now, don't forget to check the last minute deals. Enjoy your stay!
While vacations are supposed to be a careless adventure for all of us, accidents and medical emergencies have this bad habit of ruining our fun time. That is why travel insurances have been introduces at a certain moment. As we are now part of the European Union, travel policies have much changed for us Romanians.
Before, one used to go to a travel agency, pay for the insurance and go about one's business. Today, if you have the time to the health authority in your city or town, you get this new card allowing you to benefit from health insurance without any additional payments, as long as you travel within the EU territory. Otherwise, you still have to pay for separate travel insurances.
What no one tells you is that if you're like me and have to go to your home town to have this taken care of, you can still pay for a travel insurance on a limited period and travel with no worries.
If you're interested in a specialized travel insurance provider, try CoverMyTravels.com that offers age concern travel insurance. They offer their services regardless of your age and at a relatively low price.
I have given up making holiday plans through agencies for some time now. They have standard offers only, and at least in Romania, they seem to be highly inflexible. So now I employ a different procedure: I make my plans, choose the destination, then decide how to get there (car, plane, bus) and finally make my hotel reservation online.
Besides offering the opportunity to book hotels while benefiting from important discounts, HotelReservations.com offers complete services, helping you book a flight to get to your hotel, to rent a car while staying there or to choose entire vacation packages. The site is available in English, German, French, Italian and Spanish and is further localized on a per-country base, allowing quick searches for country such as Germany, Canada, Austria and many more. You can also opt for single bookings or group bookings, a special phone number being available for the latter.
I really loved their multiple browsing opportunities when looking for a hotel, motel or a resort. You can search by city, by country or choose to type the exact location and select exact dates for your stay. There are many possibilities to explore and the maps offered are pretty comprehensive. Which is really important, as finding and address in a city you've just gotten into can sometimes be a real challenge.
Paying opportunities are not limited, you can choose any type of card you like: Visa, MasterCard or American Express. What I also think is very important is the fact that phone numbers are available 24/7. Issues occur at any time, therefore such a service should weigh a lot when making booking decisions.
There are also a few things HotelReservations.com could improve. One is more of a personal taste suggestion: the color palette. Gray shades on white do not really agree with me and create a poor contrast, not really catching your eye. The other suggestion is for a more technical aspect. While providing Italian, German and French versions of their site, which I think is great for attracting customers who have little knowledge of English, only Spanish and English are available in the language selection menu. Also, the selection flag images can fail in generating results.
While analyzing the many pros of HotelReservations.com, I am pretty sure that they have good odds of becoming the online booking site for hotels around the world. A great pricing policy, doubled by efficient customer support can easily turn HotelReservations.com into a reference point for online touristic services.
My next unbooked holiday is for New Year's. I am sure to check their site before making any plans.
High Tourists Expectations for the Romanian Seaside
According to a piece of news published by Wall-Street, this year's number of tourists visiting the Romanian seaside will be 15% higher than last year's. As Lucian Morariu, state secretary with SMB Industry, Commerce and Tourism Ministry, tourism agencies have reported increasing demands for this area, 50 % more than registered last year in May.
The article also mentions that the reported increase is due to the stability and understanding reached by local authorities and tourism industry representatives regarding the beaches and other facilities on the Black Sea shore.
I am curios to see how pleased the tourists are at the end of their stay as I am convinced the service level is the same for hotels, restaurants, bars, and other such places. I am also quite sure there won't be more individual space on the crowded beaches of Mamaia, the resort mentioned in the article.
Bucharest - Business Tourists Boost Hotel Chains' Profits
80% to 95% of Bucharest hotels' customers come from the business sector and most tourists coming to Bucharest are foreigners, with estimates in this regard pointing to 75-80% of overall arrivals in 2006.
The conference and banqueting segment, generated by the same business sector, accounts for different shares in Bucharest five-star hotels' turnovers, from 30% to 50%.
Under the circumstances, the most profitable hotels of Romania, besides having the advantage of being the biggest, are also the most luxurious, mainly targeting those who do not pay for accommodation from their own incomes. Luxury hotels, represented by the six five-star hotels (Howard Johnson, Grand Plaza, JW Marriott, Intercontinental, Athenee Palace Hilton, Casa Capsa and Crowne Plaza) have around 1,467 available rooms together of the total 6,400 rooms on the market, reads a report on the Bucharest real estate market put together by CB Richard Ellis Romania (CBRE).
What's next? Other international chains will soon follow. Word is Kempinsky, Hyatt, Four Seasons, Sheraton or Leading Hotels of the World will soon join the party. Suprising? Not really.
The question is: do local hotels stand a chance? Probably, if they invest tons of money to offer the same service levels, if they promote themselves on the international market (online booking services might not be such a bad idea) and if they change their business model and realize returning customers are worth more than one time customers that you manage to trick.
Lisbon, Portugal - The World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) last night announced the winners of the 2007 Tourism for Tomorrow Awards at the Gala Dinner for the 7th Global Travel & Tourism Summit. The Awards recognize and promote the best practices in tourism development all over the world. The winners of the four categories are:
The winners were selected by a panel of five judges, chaired by Costas Christ, world expert in sustainable tourism. The judging process included on-site evaluation visits of all award finalists by a team of sustainable tourism experts around the world.
More on WTTC's site. I have to confess, I pray for the day when Romania or parts of it are considered for such awards.
Well, I thought I'd spend the Labor Day prolonged weekend close to home. So, I decided to try Constanta for a few days. Seaside on May 1st, now that's something I always wanted and never did. So, I started looking for hotels. The cheapest room was around 30 EUR per night. Which is quite a lot! And I said no way, let's see other options.
I went to Booking.com (we'd used the same site for our Istanbul trip) and searched for hotels in Athens. Yup, 10 EUR less and it's like..ATHENS! Let's go people! For some reason, they all agreed on going. So, on Friday evening, I'll get in my car and drive for about 1250 km. Then spend three lovely days in Athens.
I know most of my friends are going to Bulgaria to spend Labor Day. Others are going to the mountains. Most hotels on the seashore won't be open. The rest of the hotels, where do they expect guests from? There is this little thing called competition, you should always think of it. Or you know, not going bankrupt anytime soon?
So, passengers: Silviana, D, a friend of Silviana's; driver: yours truly.
Foreigners or Romanians living abroad always say Romanian hotels belonging to international chains have high prices. Higher than in other capitals around Europe. I always wondered why this policy was accepted. Wouldn't foreigners be reluctant to pay more for the same services? Well, first I thought most customers of 4-5 stars hotels are business tourists. So they couldn't care less about prices. Another fact just caught my attention today. This pricing policy is really working:
Out of the 32 hotels operated by the Marriott group within continental Europe, the JW Marriott hotel in Bucharest is among the top five contributors to the group's turnover, says Kurt Strohmayer, general manager of the hotel.
"Contrary to the general opinion, the most profitable hotels are not those in Western Europe. The hotels that contribute the most to the group's business, with the exception of the American market, are those in Russia, followed by those in Eastern Europe", Strohmayer says.
Last year, the five-star hotel posted 38.5 million-euro turnover and 16-million euro profit. On the local market, JW Marriott leads the ranking of most profitable hotels, according to financial information provided by Societatea Companiilor Hoteliere Grand, the company managing the hotel.
Travel spending increased by 46% against January 2006, when Romanian tourists spent 50 million euros on trips abroad. The increase witnessed in the first month of 2007 was double the level posted in January 2005, when Romanian tourists had spent more than 37 million euros. Romanians spent 73 million euros in January 2007 on holidays abroad, according to data provided by the NBR (National Bank of Romania).
According to travel agencies and tour operators, most Romanians traveling abroad in January choose winter sports, with the most sought after destinations being Austria, Switzerland, France, Italy, and, lately, Bulgaria and Slovakia.
Second in preference were chartered flights to destinations such as the Mediterranean Sea, Egypt, Greece, Tunisia, and Morocco, while exotic holidays to the Seychelles, the Maldives and to Thailand were less popular, but much more profitable.
"For ski trips, 90% of tourists chose Austria. Trips to exotic locations were fewer in number, with just 3,000 tourists going for these destinations. However, the gains they bring are much bigger than, for example, trips to European cities," says Traian Badulescu, the spokesperson for the National Association of Travel Agencies (ANAT).
I guess Romanian sky resorts can finally realize that they have a strong competition to face. If we keep going abroad and foreigners keep choosing other destinations, will there be anyone left? Will there be any real demand? I surely hope not! Not until some things finally change.
If you are planning to visit the Old Continent, you'd better start saving. According to an article published by Hotnews.ro, eight of the world's most expensive capitals are in Europe. The results of a study conducted by The Economist, quoted by money.cnn.com, show Oslo to be the world's most expensive city. The Norway capital is followed by Paris, Copenhagen and London, while Bucharest ranks only the 96th, on the same level with Manama, Bahrain.
What can you do? Either take one capital at a time, or try the hostel workaround, it will save you a lot. Try flying low cost or taking your car, if it's not that fuel hungry. Oh, and try less fancy restaurants and save your money for all the important museums. Or, seek for large group tours, they are bound to get discounts.
The World Economic Forum has launched its first-ever Travel & Tourism report analysing the drivers of competitiveness in travel and tourism of 124 countries around the world. Switzerland’s safety record and high-quality industry staff contributed to its topping the index. Hong Kong was the highest-ranked Asian country and the United Arab Emirates was the most competitive Middle Eastern country with an impressive ranking of 18th place.
As explained by Wall Street, the index took into account 13 categories for each country. For a visual impression of the index, check this map. Place your mouse over the country you are interested in and see the results.
How did Romania do? Well, we are placed somewhere in the third quartile, getting the 76th place with a score of 3.91 out of 7. If you check the country profile, you will see the list of competitive disadvantages is three times longer than that of competitive advantages. What is interesting though, and also makes my day brighter, is the fact that most of these disadvantages can be worked on. Sure, it will take a lot of hard work, but at least we are not hopeless.
So, we should start by changing our rules and legislation, especially in what environmental laws are concerned, then continue by polluting less, changing our attitude towards tourists, then we could try to ensure a safer and healthier environment, to improve our air transport infrastructure, to have our government spend more on travel and tourism. Oh, yeah, and render marketing efficient for this industry.
One in ten Bucharest citizens believe foreigners come to Romania for its beautiful women
"Citizens of Romanian capital Bucharest believe that Romania is attractive for foreign citizens due to its possibility to invest (35.3%), beautiful landscapes (15.9%), culture and traditions (10%) and the beautiful women here (9.7%), a new study shows. Men named investment opportunities and the riches of the country in a larger proportion than women, while the latter leaned more to the quality of the Romanian people. 60% of those who named the beauty of Romanian women were male." Full story here.
Interesting findings, I might say. Beautiful landscapes and culture & traditions amount to about 25%. Maybe this will be a trigger, something to bring new ideas in what tourism is concerned. If Romanians are aware of the potential their country has, maybe they will also think of better ways to exploit it.
Every once in a while I amaze myself with how much I don’t know about my country. What is even more amazing is that some truly appealing travel destinations are never promoted. Thus, lots of Romanians don’t know about them. So it took a visit to CNN’s Travel Section to see this:
“There is only one count in this remote Transylvanian village of 512 souls nestled in the wilds of the Carpathian Mountains -- and it isn't Count Dracula.
Meet Count Tibor Kalnoky, a dashing 40-year-old entrepreneur and son of Transylvania descended from a noble family which settled in these misty lands in the 13th century and lived there until communism forced the family to flee.
Kalnoky's manor, which opened in 2001, lies deep in southern Transylvania, an area where myth and reality are loosely entwined. But you'll hardly hear a word here about Dracula, the Romanian warlord Vlad the Impaler or Bram Stoker's novels.
Instead Kalnoky lures guests with the old world of Transylvanian customs.
Many visitors come from Britain and the United States to feast on tasty fare of pork or chicken stew, mashed potato tinged pink by paprika pepper, home-baked cakes served by women dressed in traditional costume.
Dinner is washed down with red Romanian wine and guests are warmed by a roaring log fire in the wine cellar before snuggling into decades-old goose eiderdowns in rooms decorated faithfully in the style of the Szeklers -- the ethnic Hungarian minority to which Kalnoky belongs.
Take a hike in the hills and you may come across bears and wolves. Bird lovers can look out for eagles, black storks and woodpeckers. You can also travel in a horse and cart for a mountain picnic, cycle to nearby Transylvanian towns or visit the Kalnoky family hunting lodge. Just north of Miclosoara, there is the cave where the legendary Pied Piper lured the children of Hamelin.
When visitors return to the manor at sundown for dinner they are serenaded by Szekler music in the soft green drawing room, with antique furniture and dark wooden floors. It's low-key and relaxing.”
Iwanted to learn more about Miclosoara and the manor, so I did a little research. Not much to find on Romanian sites though. But I did find this presentation of the Kalnoky hotel. Take a peak, it’s all fascinating. And a 49 Euro price for bed and breakfast is really cheap by Romanian standards, given there is no real competition in the area.
So, my immediate plan is to get there sometime soon. And then keep recommending it to Romanian and foreign tourists.
Update The CNN article is also mentioned on Core Target.
"More and more people are ‘cash-rich’ and ‘time-poor’ today. They have less time to travel for leisure purposes, but they want to ensure that their trips create a memorable experience – one they can savour for a long time.
While today’s consumers increasingly demand better quality tourism products, it is paradoxical that the majority are still constantly on the look-out for `price deals`. Pricing clearly remains key.
Today`s leisure travelers, who comprise more singles, more female travelers, more grandparents traveling with their grandchildren, and more large family units (several generations), are much less concerned about which destination they visit, which means they tend to be less loyal to destinations than they ever were in the past.
In this age of environmental changes and the increasingly widespread awareness of the need to be more ‘green’, authenticity is also of growing importance to holidaymakers than ever before. They want more interaction with local people and a more emotional and cultural link to the people and communities they visit."
These are the findings of the Pisa Forum organized by IPK International and sponsored ITB Berlin. More details on the forum and the profile here.
These findings come to reaffirm the economic findings regarding leisure tourists: demand is highly elastic where price is concerned. Unlike the business tourists, who have the same taste for high-standard services and never worry about the price.
More singles, more female travelers. This is a natural trend I guess. A form of expressing one's independence from one point of view. Or maybe finally realizing that no one else will fulfill one's dreams. When you want to see certain places, you just need to make plans on your own and others will follow.
Apparently, the number of conservative tourists, those choosing the same location, the same hotel and eating at the same restaurant, is decreasing. With easy access to thousands of different travel destinations, who has time to go to the same place each time they travel? Maybe exposure to media reports about new hot spots is increasing tourists' taste for new discoveries.
I am more of an adventurer tourist. I like making my own schedules, first deciding when and where to go, what to do there, and then choosing where to stay. I am a fan of cheap lodging (budget hotels or hostels) when it comes to making expense plans for longer journeys (more than one week), but never think twice when it comes to paying a lot on visiting museums, palaces, churches and mosques. And I am crazy about little reminders of where I have been. And love to experience local cuisine instead of going to the universal fast foods that I feel safe with.
For short vacations, I am can be tempted by 4-5 stars hotels. Like this year in Istanbul. As much as I love luxury hotels and would kill to one day manage one, I find it quite dispensable when it comes to seeing more and doing significantly more at the same price.
I buy tourist guides. I could research online, which I actually do, but I find guides to be more detailed and as I buy them where I'm at, it's also a good reminder for later.
What kind of tourist are you? What do you like to do/experience when traveling?
This year, the number of tourists worldwide has established a new record, reaching a total of 842 million, 4.5% more than in 2005. The highest increase (8%) was reported on the African continent, the area being one of the most dynamic regions in what travel and tourism are concerned.
The growth exceeded World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) expectations for 2006, which were for a 4.1% increase. UNWTO expects a 4% increase for 2007. Will the estimation be exceeded again?
"Travellers are better informed and have become more adept at weighing their options and now include security factors as just another consideration among others when choosing their destinations." I would be happy with Romanian tourists becoming better informed and choosing wisely in 2007.
Any Easter Offer is Better than the Romanian Offers
According to an article published by Eventimentul Zilei, most Easter offers in foreign countries are cheaper than similar offers in Romania. Bulgaria is the leader of small prices, as all-inclusive packages in four star hotels start at 20 euros per day.
A four day trip would amount to 122 euros (with the tour operator fee), even cheaper than the same period at a Romanian mountain villa. If one would choose to go to a hotel in local mountain resort Sinaia, one would pay about 360 euros for four nights of bed and breakfast. The same conditions four 5 nights plus a plane ticket you would get in Antalya (Turkey) for 370 euros. Or one could spend 7 nights in a three star hotel in Tunisia, ticket included, 2 meals a day, for 400 euros. Or go to Malta for a lot less.
Every time I see such comparatives I am amazed of the lack of perspective in tourism-related management. But what leaves me in deep awe is the fact that Romanian tourists still fill up the Romanian hotels and buy all these lame packages. Why? There are arguments, still none can convince me it’s a smart choice.
Name: Alina Home: Bucharest, Bucharest, Romania About Me: "This is my church. This is where I heal my hurts". It's also where I feel free and my preferred means of expression. See my complete profile
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