Hotel operators bullish in 2003

The hotel operators were bullish about the prospects of this summer season during the Seaside 2003 Tourism Exchange in Mamaia on Wednesday, even though the American soldiers were quartered just a stone’s throw away waiting for George W. Bush to order an attack on Iraq. “The 2003 summer season will be better than 2002, if the war ends quickly,” said businessman George Copos, owner of the Ana Group, which holds the Astoria and Europa Hotels in Eforie Nord, among others. “Almost every hotel was privatised, and competition has become fiercer,” he explained, adding that there were indeed some problems yet unsolved, such as the infrastructure or the service quality. Daniel Vasilescu, chairman of the Romanian Tourism Employers Federation, the organiser of the Exchange was in his turn hoping to have a better season. “We’ve had more contracts concluded at the beginning of this event than we did in the previous years. Will there be more tourists? That remains to be seen, depending on the development of the conflict in the Middle East.” ZF