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Tourism: Canceled, delayed flights, biggest challenge for tourism in 2024
The canceled or delayed flights of low-cost airlines represented the biggest challenge this year, the president of the National Association of Travel Agencies, Alin Burcea told a press conference.
"Among the challenges of 2024, delays and cancellations should be mentioned first of all. Flights that were delayed like this had never been before. Certain companies with very high volume had the lack of common sense not to even announce beforehand the passengers arrived at the airport that the flight had been canceled or delayed. If a low-cost airline has canceled flights, it does not have the obligation to give you an alternative and you have to find a solution. I kept saying that there is only one solution, namely a ticketing agent. Because if an agent sends you the ticket and it is canceled, he finds solutions for you, he doesn't leave you. Especially since the cancellations have reached somewhere between 10-20% of the flights", Burcea told the representatives of the Romanian media during an info-trip organized by the Paralela 45 agency in Antalya (Turkey).
He also complained about the "unfair competition" practiced by some airlines that try to attract tourists directly, bypassing the travel agencies: "there are companies that directly tackle the customers, saying "don't go to the agencies anymore, come directly to us". It is unfair competition and the Competition Council should take measures".
Burcea emphasized that he had to make a selection of "serious" airlines at Paralela 45, which are based on a well-established flight schedule.
He also announced the new charter routes that will be launched in 2025 by Paralela 45: Brasov-Chania, Timisoara-Chania, Timisoara-Tenerife, Oradea-Mallorca and Oradea-Larnaca.
Ioana Burcea, marketing manager at Paralela 45, stated that, starting in 2025, the agency will implement artificial intelligence in the process of booking tourist packages.
"The year 2025 is an anniversary for us, with 35 years of activity, in which we will launch a new website. A complex website and I hope it will be the 'eMAG of tourism', in which we will have new functions, with geo-location, a integrated customer account, with invoice system and payment in installments, because we will have the possibility of payment in up to 16 installments. We are launching a Black Friday offer right now with holiday payment in 16 installments. This information will be found in the new site. And we will implement a chatbot, and the virtual travel agent will be called Ioana. Our goal is not to replace the travel agent through AI, but to make our work easier, to interact with the client, because many clients do not know exactly what they want, or where they want to go, and they need an additional consultation. We will streamline the consulting part until the contact with the agent", declared Ioana Burcea.
Ondina Dobriban, general manager of Paralela 45, stated that one of the agency's goals in 2025 is to increase by 50% the number of tourists who purchase tours.
"Tours are our specialty and for 2025 we have a rather ambitious target, namely a 50% increase. It is not little, considering that tours are a complex product. We started tours 35 years ago and have reached 160 itineraries and over 600 groups per year. It's a huge responsibility, because we're also talking about some destinations you can't get to twice in your life," said Dobriban.