Eurolines agencies rebrand as TUI

Romanian group Eurolines, which runs a network of 52 travel agencies, has struck a deal with German company TUI Travel under which 25 of the local operator’s agencies will be rebranded as TUI Travel Center. Over the next three years, Eurolines plans to increase its number of agencies to 100.

“Our investment in the first agency that we opened today was EUR 100,000 but we expect to invest between EUR 10,000 and EUR 20,000 in each agency we will be rebranding. This is only for the image side; there will be other investments in people and training,” Dragos Anastasiu, president of Eurolines Group, told BR.

The agencies will sell TUI products under the concept of Travel Hypermarket. TUI Travel Center agencies via Eurolines will offer complete vacation packages as well as individual products such as accommodation, holidays in Romania and abroad, plane, coach and train tickets, travel insurance, transfers, coach and minibus rentals, as well as a rent-a-car service.

“We are developing a call center dedicated to German products. We also have a very close collaboration with TUI on product training, technology training and all this means more, and especially better qualified people,” said Anastasiu.

The Eurolines agencies will end this year with EUR 28 million in sales. “We grew 63 percent in the tourism sector, 16 percent in the coach sector and nearly 32 percent in plane tickets, so we have not felt the crunch,” he added.

As part of the partnership with TUI, Eurolines Group has acquired Danubius Travel, more than 70 percent of which belonged to the TUI group. “Our partnership with TUI is a long-term partnership that includes several stages. This is the first stage and we can talk about the next ones several years from now. Our biggest issue so far has been our association with coach travel. Now, with a tourism brand, we can change that perception. TUI did not have a distribution network in Romania while we did not have a brand. We have now joined forces,” said Anastasiu.

Otilia Haraga