Germany’s TUI Conditions Return To Romanian Market

"We met Wednesday at the tourism fair with Romanian tourism minister Elena Udrea and we talked about concrete measures for authorities to observe minimal conditions allowing us to resume operations on the Romanian market,” Grosse said.

He added there are four basic conditions without which the German group cannot return to Romania.

The first of these is Romania’s official holiday season on the Back Sea coast, which should open on May 15 at the latest and close on September 15.

A second condition is the need for direct flights between Romania’s southeastern Black Sea city of Constanta and cities in Germany, at "competitive" prices.

TUI also required the Romanian tourism minister to start joint marketing campaigns to better promote Romanian tourist destinations.

The German group also required that prices charged by Romanian seaside hotels should be "competitive".

Grosse said these conditions he discussed with minister Udrea were received as viable. Following these talks, a delegation of the German tour operator will visit Romanian seaside hotels in May this year, accompanied by the Romanian minister.

"To ensure TUI’s comeback in 2010, preliminary talks with the Romanian side should be completed by the end of May, hotels should be contracted by early July and the brochure featuring Romanian hotels should be ready in August,” Grosse said, adding he was impressed by the Romanian minister’s attitude and her determination to bring TUI back on the Romanian market.