Happy Tour travel agency, the leading player on the local tourist market, posted a 20% increase in turnover in the first six months of this year against the same period in 2005, to 17.5 million euros. "Outgoing travel, as well as event organising (conferences, seminars or team building) have seen a significant growth. Ticketing services (the sale of airplane tickets) also saw a major rise," stated Nicolae Demetriade, chairman of the company. He estimates the agency will close 2006 with a turnover worth 35m euros, an approximately 13% increase against 2005. Demetriade says 21m euros will come from ticketing and 14m from the travel segment.

However, in terms of holiday packages in Romania, Happy Tour has a very limited supply. "Domestic service packages have an insignificant share in our activity as a whole. We are not yet fully convinced that we can provide such services at a high standard of quality and within an acceptable price range," explains the Happy Tours representative. A significant part of operators, as well as tourists are complaining about non-satisfactory services in local tourism, particularly at the seaside.

"We prefer to wait awhile before providing these services (packages in Romania), because we don't want to lose our clients. Those who don't realise that in Romania as well, the only ones who will survive are those who provide quality services, which require significant investment, are in for a big surprise," says Demetriade. He also says that this year, more complex packages are in demand, for destinations comparable with those of last year.

"Even though the same destinations are in demand - Palma de Majorca, Tenerife, Rhodes, Crete, Antalya or Italy, the hotel standard is at least a four-star one," Demetriade says. The company operates charters for these destinations. The charter system means that one or several travel agenci