Happy Tour revenues up 10% in Q1

Happy Tour collected 4.5 million euros worth in the first quarter this year, 10% more than in the same time last year, Nicolae Demetriade, the head of the travel agency said. “Demand from corporate clients increased. Romanian companies are organising more and more trips abroad and so do foreign companies,” Demetriade said. The company last year logged $20 million (17.3 million euro) turnover, 18% more than in 2002. More than half of the total revenues were derived from ticketing operations. Approximately $13 million out of the total 2003 revenues came from the sale of flight tickets, while the charter flight segment contributed 4%-5% to the overall turnover. The Bucharest-based tour operator expects revenues to increase by about 10% this year. Happy Tour will be organising charter flights to Turkey, Greece and Spain again this summer. To that end, it has teamed up with three other travel agencies in Romania, with the flights operated by Tarom and Air Europa. Another segment that contributed to its revenue increase was that of cruise packages, as the agency sold 360 such packages in 2003, twice more than in 2002. ZF