Need Tour, a renowned tour operator in Turkey, has been launched on the Romanian tourism market and has presented its novelties and plans before 300 partners, during the launch event that took place on December 15-17 in Poiana Brasov. With prompt, good-quality full services, a complex approach and proven tourism expertise, Need Tour Romania aims to take travel experiences to the next level.
Even though Need Tour Holidays Romania was set up just 3 months ago, its team already has 50 members, being coordinated by Mr Tumay Alver, Co-founder and Administrator, Mr Aytac Acikgoz, Co-founder and Development Department Director, and Mrs Mihaela Craciun, General Manager. Turkey’s Need Tour Antalya has more than 10 years’ experience in tourism in the Balkan region. Specialising in incoming tourism in Antalya, Kusadasi, Bodrum and Marmaris, Need Tour has transformed travels into unique experiences tailored to the wishes of each client, offering exclusivist and corporate packages but also products for the mid-level segment. The large-scale events in Need Tour’s portfolio also include NEED 4 FEST (concerts, festivals, and parties), international beauty pageants, but also International Tourism Forums. So far, the latter have taken place in Turkey, Russia, and Georgia, however in the future such a forum could be organised in Romania too.
Need Tour Romania estimates that, in 2018, more than 12,000 clients will reach Turkey through four weekly charter flights from Bucharest, Cluj, Oradea and Suceava, and more than 3,000 through individual packages, thus benefitting from the company’s offers. The company’s representatives stake on an occupancy rate of at least 92 percent. Likewise, it is expected 3,000 others will go to Egypt, using the company’s services, thus raising to 18,000 the total number of packages expected to be sold through partnered tour operators. “We are a B2B company, we do not make direct sales to the final client, but through our network of partners,” Need Tour Romania General Manager Mihaela Craciun stated at the press conference in Poiana Brasov.
“Need Tour Holidays is a 100 percent Romanian company. We are now a baby, a new-born, and have started to walk on our feet. We want to do more, with seriousness, for Turkey and Romania, more for tourism in the country, for Romanian agencies,” Aytac Acikgoz told the journalists at the press conference. “In the future, we want to bring the corporate from Antalya and Istanbul to Romania,” he added. The first areas in the crosshairs are: Suceava, attractive through its historical heritage and its monasteries, Cluj-Napoca, a city many Turks are already travelling to, and which has a developed business community, and also Oradea.
“We want to offer the best services, quality should be our signature” – Aytac Acikgoz
To meet market demand, starting in 2018 the tour operator plans to include insurance against insolvency in all its packages. Through City Insurance, its insurance provider, Need Tour offers its clients medical and storno insurance included in the tourism package. “We work with people and especially for people, and aim to offer them the dream vacation they want and deserve. With this in mind, we are doing our best to make sure our clients feel relaxed and safe every time they travel. Together with an international insurance company, we want all packages offered to our partners in 2018 to include an INSO insurance solution, protecting every package against insolvency. We undertake to do all we can to find a way of offering our partnered re-seller agency and the final clients coverage in the event of insolvency/bankruptcy,” the Need Tour Development Director says.
Aytac Acikgoz: “Seriousness is important”
Asked about the development strategy, Aytac stated: “Seriousness is important. We have fair prices, we don’t want to engage in unfair competition. I guarantee we have the best price for the services offered. As long as we are serious, we are convinced the business will do well. No booking waits more than a week here. The tourist can immediately check with the hotel the booking lodged with us. Our name is Need Tour both in Antalya and here.” In addition, Mihaela Craciun stated: “One of the novelties on the market is the fact that Need Tour Antalya and Need Tour Holidays Romania are related. It’s the first collaboration bearing the same name, the first market experience let’s say of the same brand. Although distinct legal entities, we are basically one and the same. The bookings lodged with us go directly to the hotels in Antalya, being an extra guarantee that things are done correctly.”
Need Tour Romania’s launch gala in Poiana Brasov brought together more than 300 participants, representatives of partnered tourism agencies, of no fewer than 14 international hotel chains from holiday destinations in Turkey (Armas Hotels, Alva Donna Hotels, Aska Hotels, Avantgarde Hotels, Bellis Deluxe Antalya, Ela Quality Resort Belek and more) and of airlines (including Tarom, Corendon, Atlas Global), but also guests of the Romanian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCIR) and of the International Chamber of Commerce.
The representatives of the hotel chains competed in offering the most attractive offers, outlining important aspects that tourists must consider when selecting tourism packages. Care shown toward children – warm-water slides, special food for children, beach-cleaning system that uses seawater, free lodging for two children younger than 12 years old, large areas dedicated to children’s activities and more – is only one of the elements included in Need Tour’s family packages. In the future, parents will be able to benefit from Romanian-speaking babysitters too.
“We offer our partners special deals, and we always have. In Antalya we have a very good relationship and a direct, valuable, and solid partnership with hotels, so every week we’ll have best-rate guaranteed offers with certain hotels. In 2018, we think the Romanians’ favourite destination will be Belek, which offers exceptional conditions for both families and the luxury segment,” Need Tour Romania’s General Manager says.
Need Tour Romania is member of ICC Romania, alongside well-known names from the Romanian business sector, such as Rifil, Siveco, Dacia Renault or Kaufland Romania. Present at the workshop, Mihai Ivascu, Advisor to the CCIR President and representative of the International Chamber of Commerce Romania, stated: “We are very proud that starting in 2017 we will have Need Tour as a member of the ICC Romania National Committee. We are very proud to be by your side in this ambitious project that you want to develop in Romania and it’s a pleasure for us when such investors come to our country, create jobs, generate business activity, pay taxes, generate added value for the Romanian economy.”
Need Tour representatives have also revealed some of their plans for 2019: 23,000 Romanian tourists will travel to Turkey, but also to Greece, Cyprus, Spain, and India. To ease the tourists’ access to hotels, the tour operator is mulling direct flights from Bucharest and Cluj to Alanya. We are looking forward to finding out what other projects the company has.
