Danube Floods Affected the Demand for Eastern Europe

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    Russian tour operators that specialize in Romania, Hungary and Bulgaria said in the interview to a BANKO correspondent that he floods in Europe have moved to the Danube region without having affected its travel routes. Thus, General Director of Zhivie Kluchi Travel Company, Pavel Borodin, commented on the current situation as follows: ‘due to heavy snowfalls in Europe the Danube reached a record 8.48m and the river flooded plains of the lowlands, while main excursion programs are held in Transylvania located in the mountains’. Moreover, Russian tourists who are visiting Eastern Europe at the moment also did not feel the affect of floods.
    However, experts divided opinions regarding the demand for the flooded countries. Thus, Irina Petrova, General Director of Solvex-travel, who knew about floods in Bulgaria from a BANKO correspondent, did not notice the drop in demand for the destination. Moreover, representatives of Skyway Travel Company pointed out the unexpected demand for the Bulgarian destination at the moment: ‘a person who is good at geography will not be influenced by such media reports’, said Borodin.
    Nevertheless, travel market experts emphasize the influence of mass media: ‘unfortunately, the floods were too dramatized by mass media, therefore, for some time we received phone calls from our tourists and several tours were cancelled. At the moment the situation has stabilized but in general the information has affected the demand, especially for May holidays’, summarized Elena Yudina, Director Deputy of De Visu travel Company.