Carlson Wagonlit Travel (CWT) specializes in business travel management and is present in more than 150 countries. In 2010 the volume of sales of program optimization services, airplane ticket booking, accommodation, and other services, amounted to $24.3 billion. CWT this year acquired Finnish travel company Kaleva Travel, with a turnover of $450 million at international level, which operates a travel agency on the Romanian market with a 3.1 million lei (EUR0.73 million) turnover last year.
What companies look for when choosing an event location
“The first aspect considered by companies looking to organize a corporate event (conferences or seminars, for instance) is how well known the place is. Then companies look at the budget they need to allocate for the event,” says Patrick Andersen.
There are no official data on the local market of corporate events (conferences, seminars, etc). However, CWT estimates the market is worth nearly EUR200 million, with Kaleva Travel providing travel management services to nearly 100 firms in Romania, especially multinationals.
Andersen says that, although Bucharest offers very good facilities as far as conference halls and hotels are concerned, prices are rather high.
“Companies would send only smaller groups to Bucharest events. But when it comes to events of over 1,000 people, Bucharest could lose out to other Eastern-European capitals because of accommodation fees.”
Andersen however did not give examples of how much a conference with over 1,000 participants in Bucharest would cost, as opposed to one in Budapest or Prague.
Bucharest has an accommodation capacity of 16,882 in hotels, according to the latest data available from the National Statistics Institute. Nearly 3,600 rooms are in five-star hotels, which also have conference halls.
“If hotel operators in Bucharest charge the fees that they do, it means they don’t lack clients. The perception of foreign companies planning to hold an event in Bucharest is that the Romanian capital is much cheaper than it really is.”
According to the latest data available on the market, the average daily rate per room fell by 3.6% in the first three months of the year for hotels affiliated to international chains, to EUR75.7, according to a survey by Fivestar Hospitality.
Almost 80% of Bucharest’s travelers who find accommodation in hotels are business travelers.
Need to control spending
Increasingly more companies are resorting to travel management services. Large companies need to control their business travel spending, i.e. to have an efficient travel management.
“For our global clients it is important that we have a strong presence in strategic countries. (…) The position we have on the Romanian market through Kaleva Travel is helping us develop our business both in Romania and in Eastern Europe.”
Patrick Andersen says while companies from Nordic countries that organize corporate events in foreign destinations choose Paris, companies in countries such as Germany, Austria and Italy tend to choose Bucharest.
Sales of the Kaleva Travel agency (which will be rebranded CWT), were up 18% in the first nine months of this year against the similar period of last year.
The increase was due to attracting new clients, as well as to an increase in demand for travel management services from existing clients, according to CWT officials.
The largest players on the Romanian travel agencies market are Happy Tour, Eximtur, and Marshal Tourism.
(EUR1=RON4.2)
(English version by Daniela Stoican)