Business tourism has been stalled since the start of the pandemic, affecting both accommodation and event organization. Forecasts for this year are not encouraging, leading to the solution of developing the capital as a vacation destination. However, support from authorities and time to attract tourists are needed, stated Andreea Gheorghiu, General Manager of Novotel and Mercure Bucharest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In our field, besides the accommodation part, we want to build, together with the Hotel Industry Federation, a destination management system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While we are slightly more optimistic about increasing occupancy for the events segment in 2021, forecasts remain discouraging. Large events will no longer be organized, and a new type of event will emerge: hybrid events, with one part present in conference rooms and one part online, Gheorghiu estimates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Business tourism is in a delicate situation because remote work has reduced travel. The role of hotel professionals, according to the cited source, is to increase trust among potential clients, encouraging them to understand that all safety measures are being adopted and offering the same level of quality they were accustomed to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If the business segment decreases, we expect to grow Bucharest as a vacation destination. In Romania, there has been a significant increase in occupancy rates in the provinces, and the hotel industry wants to grow Bucharest as well. It will take time to attract both the local and international markets when the time comes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Andreea Gheorghiu specified that uncertainty continues this year, and the first four months will be similar to the end of last year. Things are expected to improve in the second half of the year as people get vaccinated and gain the confidence and courage to travel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A return to normalcy is projected in 2-3 years, according to forecasts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Regarding the development of the capital as a vacation destination, she explains that it needs an identity and a strategy established in this direction, along with a joint effort, as seen in other countries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Currently, Bucharest needs an organization to handle destination management. Generally, these organizations are created through public-private partnerships. There are discussions to launch this association.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Hotel Industry Federation is fighting to have a destination management organization for Bucharest, an association that would handle this as soon as possible starting this year. Results will be seen in a few years. Bucharest has a lot to offer, but there is no marketing plan or consistent strategy supported by hoteliers.<\/p>\n\n\n
The decline was caused by the pandemic and the adoption of remote work, which significantly reduced the number of business trips and corporate events.<\/p>\nWhat are hybrid events?<\/strong>\n Hybrid events are conferences that allow limited physical attendance in meeting rooms while the rest of the audience follows the presentations online.<\/p>\nWhen will tourism return to normal in the capital?<\/strong>\n Experts estimate that a full return to pre-pandemic activity levels will occur in approximately 2-3 years.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Business tourism has been stalled since the start of the pandemic, affecting both accommodation and event organization. Forecasts for this year are not encouraging, leading to the solution of developing the capital as a vacation destination. However, support from authorities and time to attract tourists are needed, stated Andreea Gheorghiu, General Manager of Novotel and…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":70292,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2852],"tags":[2888],"thb-sponsors":[],"class_list":["post-117969","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hotels-restaurants","tag-bucharest"],"article_style_override":"on","post-style":"style2","post_via":"","post-top-image":"https:\/\/rhn.ro\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/hotelieri-2.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rhn.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117969","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rhn.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rhn.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rhn.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=117969"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rhn.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117969\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rhn.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/70292"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rhn.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=117969"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rhn.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=117969"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rhn.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=117969"},{"taxonomy":"thb-sponsors","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rhn.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/thb-sponsors?post=117969"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}