“We plan to open new travel agencies in line with our development strategy in shopping centers, in office buildings. We’re not planning on opening travel agencies in street front locations like we used to, in the old town or the thoroughfare of a city, unless certain opportunity arises, or changes happen. The agencies closed were already planned for closing because they failed to generate the same return as the new ones in shopping centers,” Cosmin Marinof, DerTour managing director, told ZF.
DerTour closed 11 offices in Targoviste, Bistrita, Hunedoara, Ramnicu Valcea, Targu-Mures, Timisoara, Baia Mare, Craiova, Cluj and Bucharest.
Although 2020 was one of the most difficult years for the travel industry ever, the travel agency opened three offices in the shopping centers in Targoviste, Brasov and Targu-Mures, investing more than EUR40,000 in each of them. DerTour also invested EUR200,000 in developing a reservation platform for its agencies.
The sales volume should return to 60% or 70% of the sales volume of 2019 this year, but that will depend on how the vaccination campaign goes, Cosmin Marinof says.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)