We are moving better than the market

Last December, you said unemployment will be a problem
in 2010. Apparently, you were right. Given your experience, when do you think the situation will start improving about this real and dangerous issue? Did it also hit your employees, at Eurolines?
Unemployment will be the last to recover. Companies will first wait to grow and will “overload” their current personnel, obviously within the limits of the law. Paid overtime will come first. Only when managers see several months of stability and/or constant growth will they start hiring more people. In the industry, things will move in hand with foreign demand, but will follow the same trend. By the middle of the year, I expect unemployment to stop rising, but only next year we’ll start seeing more jobs. Furthermore, crisis taught us to be efficient, showed us where and how much we were wasting before. Romanian employees are not so great performers in terms of efficiency and productivity - an additional reason why unemployment will take long to recover.

All companies were hit by the economic crisis, obviously. To what extent did it also hit Eurolines and, implicitly, its turnover?
Like the whole market, Eurolines too was hit by crisis. People “moved” less. Though turnover decreased in 2009, profitability actually rose, because we took extra care with costs and took measures that helped us in this regard. Our big advantage was that, before the crisis, we had started a process of restructuring, reorientation and reequipping, and we had already done our homework when the crisis hit.
The data provided by us refers to the sales figure of the whole Eurolines group (with its main services: bus, tourism and air ticketing). This is different than turnover, but we find it more illustrative for our activity and palette of services, because it gives actual sales. Thus, in 2008 we achieved RON 130,798,598, followed by RON 108,822,101 in 2009.

What will happen with Eurolines in 2010? I presume you already drafted an activity plan. How do you see things in this social and... political context?
In 2010, things will not be easy for the economy, nor will they for Eurolines. On one hand, we are prepared, and we all think in the lines of “it cannot get worse.” On the other, we see prices for diesel and petrol going up, while the exchange rate is less favourable to us. The first three months brought us higher costs, but also bigger sales, fortunately, although the market is still declining. This means we are moving better than the market, and this is why we are optimistic.

How hard is it to do tourism in a country like Romania? What are the major steps Romania should do to attract foreign tourists?
It is hard to do tourism in a country like Romania. Outgoing is difficult, because people no longer have money, while incoming is almost impossible, because Romania’s image - as a tourist country - is either inexistent, or plainly bad. The main barriers in attracting foreign tourists are positioning and image. What is the target and what are the products? After we find the answers, we still have to communicate them. People abroad still think Romania is not a SAFE country! Though it is... And safety is the main thing tourists expect from a destination. Romania’s image is much worse than reality. This is one issue, followed by another, which is ‘opportunity.’ If our main problem were the infrastructure, as many keep saying, this would be bad news, because it will further suffer during the next 10 years.

How did you perceive Romanian tourism before leaving the country and how do you see it now, 20 years after the Revolution, especially since you became so involved in your business?
When I left Romania, 28 years ago, the seaside and Sinaia or Poiana Brasov were full of foreign tourists... who were generally pleased. Everything was working well. Now, almost nothing is working. Using the slogan “We don’t sell our country,” we took care to destroy it ourselves.

Do Romanians still have money to spend their holidays abroad? Based on what you saw so far, how will tourism fare this year, in Romania?
Romanians generally don’t have money and resources for holidays. Only 40 pc of Romanians take at least one holiday a year, and most of them go to relatives, friends and acquaintances. Only few of the 40 pc choose to go on real holidays, arranged via a tour operator. Figures decreased in 2009, compared to 2008. For this year, I expect things to stabilise and even get slightly better. Things won’t improve very much in terms of value, but I hope we’ll be able to increase the number of tourists. They will still buy cheap and cautiously, because they are still afraid about the job. I however believe that the worst has passed and we are on the increase - slowly, indeed, but still an increase.

How did you draft your strategy for this year? Do you envisage a merger or partnership?
Both passenger transport industry and tourism need an urgent consolidation. There is no alternative to this. We are considering this for some time and will certainly do something about it. We cannot tell you now the precise direction we will go, not before we make the move. I hope we’ll have concrete results even this year, which will be a pleasant surprise, especially to our clients.

Sursa: nineoclock.ro