The five largest travel agencies on the market, Happy Tour, Paralela 45, Eximtur, Aerotravel and Marshal Turism, last year generated cumulated turnover worth almost 207m euros, with half of the revenues coming from plane ticket sales.
The five companies derive almost 25% of the revenues the 2,500 travel agencies in Romania generate annually, according to a ZF survey.
Data provided by the National Association of Travel Agencies (ANAT) and by players in the field show the overall value of the travel agency market stands at 700-800m euros and includes incoming, outgoing and ticketing activities, internal travel, conferences or business events.
Happy Tour, Paralela 45, Eximtur, Aerotravel and Marshal Turism reported 2007 cumulated turnover worth 176m euros to the Finance Ministry, meaning their sales rose by around 14% last year.
Travel agencies' ranking is led, like last year, by Happy Tour, an agency taken over, in late 2007, by Spain's GED Eastern Fund II investment fund, part of GED Capital Management Spanish company. The travel agency ended 2008 with turnover worth 50-51m euros, almost 10% higher than in 2007, but below estimates.
Paralela 45, owned by businessman Alin Burcea, ranking second on the market and also the biggest Romanian-held company, expects revenues to drop by between 9% and 13% this year.
Another major player on the market, Eximtur travel agency, controlled by Morariu family of Cluj, which finalised last year with 40.5m-euro turnover, up 15% year-on-year, in early 2009 projected a 10% sales increase.
Aerotravel Lufthansa City, whose majority stake is held by Mihai David, also expects turnover to stagnate this year. After generating sales of over 20% in the past four years, hitting 35m-euro turnover in 2008, the company announced it plans to keep revenues at the same level based on an effective cost management,
