Interview. Daniel Truica (Vola.ro): Romania is a destination chosen mainly by Diaspora

Georgiana Bendre 16/03/2018 | 22:51

Passionate about tourism, during a period when agencies existed mostly offline, Daniel Truica founded the online tourism agency Vola.ro in 2007. Almost 11 years later, Vola.ro has become one of the most popular toursim agencies. BR talked exclusively to Daniel and found out more about the agency, how it started, how the tourists have changed during time and which are his plans.

 

How did the idea of founding Vola.ro come up?

The idea came more than 10 years ago, when the tourism industry existed mostly offline. It’s a funny story because at that time we had an office on Magheru boulevard and I was walking down the street with my partners discussing about setting up a tourism agency and after 200 meters of walk we passed by 5 tourism agencies much more impressive than ours. That moment we decided to be in the online field because we felt that the market will enter online and there is less competition. That was the pragmatic side. Besides, we were all passionate about travelling, we lived abroad different period of time and we saw in travelling more than checking some attraction points to a destination. I personally see travelling as a fantastic instrument of learning, of spiritual wealth and finally, of knowledge. It seemed fantastic to facilitate this process for as many people as possible.

 

How do you see the evolution of competition on the tourism agency market in Romania since Vola.ro was set up until now?

When we launched Vola.ro we had one important competitor, which meanwhile entered insolvency. But it took us a lot to understand that in fact we compete with all the OTAs worldwide, because any online agency is at a click distance. The competition increased fantastically as clients migrated to online massively. If we’re talking about flight tickets, for example, the offline market is negligible, everything is online now. The market matured meanwhile.

 

Do you remember which was the first offer sold?

It was a flight ticket to Madrid paid by a client with the card. At that time, only a third of bookings were acquired with the bank card, compared with 80 percent at the moment. For me it was fantastic that the first acquisition was made with the card.

 

Which is the technological impact over sales in touristic packages? Are there investments in this respect?

For Vola.ro, technology is the first area where our investments go. Not only we aim to respond our tourists’ needs when it comes about online booking of flight tickets and vacations, but also we try to be ahead them. Our aim is to anticipate what instruments would help them to implement. But in 10 years of activity we learned that pure technology never satisfies 100 percent the needs of a tourist. That’s why we have a support team available on the phone or online.

How did the tourists’ behavior change over time, do they know to choose better, are tourists more demanding now?
From my point of view, the market evolves to normality. I’ve frequently heard players in the industry (not only in our country) saying that the tourist is more informed now, as it’s a negative thing. It’s true that tourists are more informed and it’s normal to be that way. But, as in any industry, no matter how informed you are, there are situation in which you don’t know what to do with that information. The role of a professional is to build the product that you need starting from this information.

Another absolutely normal trend is the fact that the price, which has an important role in acquisition, is not anymore the only factor that tourists take into account. The consumer’s trust is the seller of services has also an important role. You need to have the best prices, but it’s no longer a differentiator.

 

Did the Romanian tourist flow abroad increased? If yes, to which destinations?

The market tends to mature. This thing is also seen in the destinations chosen by Romanian tourists. Each year, in top of destination where Romanians travel are the big European cities- London, Rome, Madrid, Barcelona, but there are also new destinations with increases of high percentages. For example, in 2017, the destinations with the most dynamic evolution regarding the flight tickets are Island (+68 percent), Morocco (+71 percent), Israel (56 percent) and Finland (+45 percent).

 

What about the flow of foreign tourists coming in Romania? Did it increase?

I think that Romania is a destination chosen mainly by diaspora. We see increases in Romanian destination (which is the second country as destination in our sales) and these travels are made by Romanians. Also the bookings of flight tickets for internal routes increased. Last year it the number of flight tickets sold for internal destinations increased by 29 percent.

 

Which are the main issues of the tourism that obstruct the development?

If we’re talking about the incoming tourism, there are many issues. The main issue is not that we don’t have what to offer from touristic point of view, but the infrastructure. We have a small country where we can facilitate the incoming tourism with a road and railway infrastructure. As the beautiful things that we have to offer are less in cities, the transport has to be facilitated for traditional tourism area to the foreign tourists. The second problem is the governmental strategy of encouraging the Romanian tourism to foreigners, focusing on the seaside, on ski areas. However, we have all we need to promote the traditional tourism, on which foreigners are impressed. We have everything but the easy access to those objectives.

 

How much of the Romania-U traffic is represented in a year by Romanians who live abroad?

I would say that over 60 percent of the traffic is generated by diaspora and Romanians who work abroad. It means not only who go to work there, but also the visits of friends and relatives.

 

How did the Vola.ro sales evolved during time?

Each year since it was launched, we had two-digit percent increases. In the first years we had a high increase, even by 500 percent year-on-year, and now we have somewhere around 15-30 percent.

 

Where do the highest demands come from?

Besides Romania, most of the bookings come from the countries where Romanians choose to live or work: UK, France, Spain, Germany, etc.

 

What turnover do you estimate for 2018?

Vola.ro estimates an increase by over 30 percent in 2018 for Romanian agency, meaning a turnover of approximately EUR 8.5 mln and total transactions of approximately EUR 75 million.

 

What are your plans for the next years?

We’ll continue to invest each year in the technological platform and bring our clients innovative services and products.

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