“Corporate customers are moving events, training sessions, business meetings to seaside locations, especially in the Mamaia resort, where they provide accommodation for their employees for one night,” Carmen Pavel, shareholder of the travel agency said.
“The average price paid per employee is EUR100. We already have eight seaside events for late May/early June with more than 100 participants. The destinations chosen earlier in the year were Poiana Brasov, Sibiu and Cluj-Napoca but now the seaside and the Danube Delta will be in demand.”
Seaside hotels have developed amenities for corporate customers, investing in conference rooms and event halls, so those who host corporate events stay open throughout the year.
J’Info Tours works with pharmaceutical, automotive, IT, cement and tobacco industry and agriculture multinationals. Such customers use J’Info Tours to book plane tickets, hotel rooms and organize training sessions and events. J’Info Tours’ customers include Avon, Unilever, Ericsson and AIG. Corporate customers contribute 67% of the agency’s revenue and the largest of them are automotive, agricultural and pharmaceutical businesses.
“The smallest budget for an event is EUR5,000, but companies allocate EUR70,000 to EUR100,000 for meetings and major business events.”
Carmen Pavel says demand for business travel services for companies and holiday packages is greater. The packages including charter flights are the most profitable leisure segment.
“We are seeing growth on the leisure segment, too. We sold 15% more seats on the charter flights to Turkey, Greece and Spain. The last two weeks of June are already fully booked, and we have 40% of our seats for July sold. Average budget for a vacation including a charter flight is EUR600 per person. Turkey, Spain, Greece and Italy are in demand for summer holidays. First quarter bookings show us we will post growth this year.”
J’Info Tours ended last year with almost EUR10 million revenue. Carmen Pavel started the agency together with her husband, Aurel Pavel, an IT engineer and a tour guide for a number of years, in 1990.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)