Money Buzz! Europa

Category: Travel

  • TUI Blue opens newly built hotel in Montafon, Austria

    TUI Blue opens newly built hotel in Montafon, Austria

    The growth of TUI Blue in the Alps continues with a newly constructed building. TUI Blue Montafon is already the third hotel of the brand in Austria.

    On the opening day residents from the region were able to experience the lifestyle concept during an ”open day” and to convince themselves of the comprehensive hygiene measures for hotel operations.

    The new building has been constructed on the property of the Austrian communities of Schruns / Tschagguns.

    The mountain hotel has 149 rooms, restaurant with buffet area, bar, conference rooms, fitness, wellness and sauna area.

    In the peak season, TUI Blue Montafon will employ around 60 people.

  • Austrian Airlines expands summer flight schedule with 15 destinations

    Austrian Airlines expands summer flight schedule with 15 destinations

    The Austrian federal government announced that the landing bans for flights from Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Kosovo, Montenegro, Egypt, Northern Macedonia, Romania, Serbia as well as Great Britain, Sweden and Ukraine will expire on July 31.

    This makes it possible to reintroduce these destinations into the flight program of Austrian Airlines.

    Due to local entry regulations, Austrian Airlines last removed flights to Shanghai and Tel Aviv from its program for the month of August.

    Flights to Bucharest, Chicago, Pristina and Sarajevo are to be offered as early as today, July 31. From August 1, the Austrian home carrier will be flying again to Belgrade, Cairo, Kiev, London, Podgorica, Sibiu, Skopje, Sofia, Stockholm, Tirana and Varna.

    New entry regulations in Austria

    No COVID-19 tests (PCR test) or quarantine measures are required for the entry of passengers from the following European countries: Andorra, Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Estonia, Finland, France, Greece, Great Britain, Ireland, Iceland, Italy, Croatia, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Monaco, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, San Marino, Switzerland, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Czech Republic, Hungary, Vatican and Cyprus.

    Transfer passengers also do not require a COVID test.

    Austrians, EU/EEA and Swiss citizens as well as persons residing in Austria, who enter from a risk area, must carry a health certificate in German or English (with a negative PCR test, not older than 72 hours at entry) or, if testing was not possible prior to the entry, they are obliged to conduct a PCR test within 48 hours at their own expense. Until the negative test result is available, a self-monitored (home) quarantine must be carried out.

    The following countries or areas are considered having an increased risk of Covid-19: Albania, Bangladesh, Belarus, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Brazil, Bulgaria, Chile, Egypt, Ecuador, India, Indonesia, Iran, Kosovo, Mexico, Moldova, Montenegro, Nigeria, Northern Macedonia, Pakistan, Peru, Philippines, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Sweden, Senegal, Serbia, South Africa, Turkey, Ukraine, USA and Hubei Province (China).

    Third-country nationals are in principle subject to an entry ban, unless they enter from the Schengen area and can present a negative PCR test not older than 72 hours. After entry, these persons must also undergo a 10-day self-monitored (home) quarantine. For this purpose, they must present a confirmation of accommodation, at their own expense.

    There are exceptions for certain groups of third-country nationals. These include those persons who are in a partnership with a person living in Austria. These persons can enter without quarantine and without a COVID test if they provide the appropriate proof.

  • Ryanair announced the relaunch of the Bucharest to Timisoara route

    Ryanair announced the relaunch of the Bucharest to Timisoara route

    Ryanair announced the relaunch of the Bucharest to Timisoara route commencing 4 Sept and operating three times weekly, as part of  its Summer 20 schedule.

    To celebrate the relaunch of this route, Ryanair is offering seats one-way from €15.99, which must be booked by midnight, Saturday (2 Aug), only on the Ryanair website. 

    Ryanair’s Olga Pawlonka said: “Ryanair is delighted to announce the relaunch of its Bucharest to Timisoara route commencing 4 Sept and operating three times weekly. Romanian customers can now book a domestic trip to Timisoara, flying on the lowest fares with Ryanair, Europe’s favourite airline.”

  • Wizz Air, 20% discount on flights to or from Romania and Moldova

    Wizz Air, 20% discount on flights to or from Romania and Moldova

    Wizz Air announced a 20% discount on all flights booked on 27 July to or from Romania and Moldova through www.wizzair.com or via the Wizz mobile app.

    The travel period is unlimited so anyone can plan their travel until far in 2021 depending on route.

    With recently announced new routes to Vienna, Salzburg, Heraklion, Mykonos, Santorini, Abu Dhabi, Palma de Mallorca, Bergen, Larnaca, Cagliari, Copenhagen, Hamburg, Memmingen or Karlsruhe / Baden-Baden, travellers can choose from 162 routes from Romania to 22 countries.

    In Moldova Wizz Air announced new routes to Nice, Hamburg or Basel Mulhouse and travelers can choose from 20 routes from Chișinău to 10 countries.

    Moreover, starting from April 2020, Wizz Air announced 210 routes in its whole route network.

  • Ryanair to launch a new route from Bucharest to Palma

    Ryanair to launch a new route from Bucharest to Palma

    Ryanair announced a new route from Romania to Spain, commencing 28 March as part of its summer 2021 schedule.

    The new route will operate twice weekly from Bucharest to Palma de Mallorca.

    Ryanair is offering seats one-way from just €29.99 for travel in April and May, which must be booked by midnight, Wednesday (29 July), only on the Ryanair website. 

  • Vienna’s tourism dramatic decline continued in June

    Vienna’s tourism dramatic decline continued in June

    Vienna’s tourism dramatic decline continued in June with overnight stays falling by 88.0% to just 190.000.

    In the first half of the year, the decline caused by Covid-19 was correspondingly lower, with a decrease of 65% or 2.8 million overnight stays, thanks to the still positive months of January and February.

    In the period January to May, the turnover of accommodation establishments fell by an equally drastic decrease of 63% to EUR 133 million.

    After the ban on accommodation for tourist purposes until the end of May, tourism in Vienna started only slowly in June: Vienna’s accommodation establishments had 190.000 overnight stays in June, which is 88% less than in the same month of the previous year.

    At 47%, almost half of this income came from Austria (89.000 overnight stays, – 68%).

    There was also a modest increase in the DACH region: in June, Vienna counted 52.000 overnight stays (- 84%) from Germany, and 6.000 (- 85%) from Switzerland.

    All of the other countries from Vienna’s top 10 of the most night-time markets (USA, Italy, Great Britain, Spain, China, France, Russia) brought declines beyond the 90% mark.

    The average occupancy of hotel beds was extremely low in June at 14.2% (6/2019: 65.9%), and that of the rooms was around 18% (6/2019: around 85%).

    A total of around 39.000 hotel beds were available in Vienna in June 2020, around 42% less than in June of the previous year.

  • Greece: In May 2020 travel receipts declined by 99.2% year-on-year

    Greece: In May 2020 travel receipts declined by 99.2% year-on-year

    Travel receipts declined by 99.2% year-on-year, in May 2020, a Bank of Greece report shows. In more detail, receipts from residents of EU27 countries fell by 99.5% to €4 million, while receipts from outside the EU27 decreased by 98.7% (May 2020: €9 million, May 2019: €683 million).

    The lower receipts from within the EU27 were due to decreases in receipts from euro area residents by 99.7% to €2 million (May 2019: €721 million) and in receipts from residents of non-euro area EU27 countries by 97.8% to €3 million.

    Among major countries of origin, the only receipts recorded were from Germany and were very low (down by 99.8% year-on-year).

    In January-May 2020, travel receipts totalled €614 million, down by 78.5% relative to the same period of 2019.

    This development was driven by an 83.1% decline in receipts from residents of EU27 countries, which came to €240 million, and by a 72.1% drop in receipts from residents of non-EU27 countries to €372 million.

    In particular, receipts from euro area residents decreased by 83.9% to €193 million, while receipts from residents of non-euro area EU27 countries fell by 78.8% to €47 million.

    Specifically, receipts from Germany dropped by 89.8% to €50 million and receipts from France fell by 91.3% to €15 million.

    Turning to non-EU27 countries, receipts from the United Kingdom dropped by 86.2% to €51 million and receipts from the United States decreased by 76.4% to €60 million.

    Receipts from Russia also decreased, by 77.2% to €11 million.

  • Number of visitors fell by 93% compared to May last year in Slovakia

    Number of visitors fell by 93% compared to May last year in Slovakia

    In May 2020, only 7 % of visitors stayed in tourism accommodation establishments compared to May 2019. Only 2.3 thousand of foreign visitors stayed, show latest Statistical Office of the Slovak Republic data.

    In May 2020, 38.946 people were accommodated in tourism establishments in Slovakia, and the number of visitors fell by 93% compared to May last year.

    Visitors spent 146.726 nights in the establishments, which was by 89,9% less year-on-year.

    Although the number of visitors increased almost 6-fold in May compared to April, their number was only at a 7% level compared to the same period last year.

    In May, the total number of visitors in hotels, boarding houses and other tourism establishments reached 553 thousand of guests last year (in 2018 it was 473 thousand visitors).

    The majority of guests (up to 94%) were represented by domestic visitors, the number of accommodated foreign visitors was only 2,3 thousand. In the same period last year, there were 224,7 thousand of foreign visitors.

    The most visited region during May was the Bratislavský kraj (21,2% of all guests)

    It was followed by two regions, which have a leading position mostly in the number of domestic visitors – the Žilinský and Prešovský kraj.

    During May, visitors spent 3,8 nights in the accommodation establishments on average, including domestic visitors 3,8 nights and foreign visitors 3,5 nights.

  • 29% of Europeans can’t afford a week’s holiday

    29% of Europeans can’t afford a week’s holiday

    In 2019, 29% of residents of EU Member States aged 16 or over were unable to afford paying for an annual one-week holiday away from home.

    This share has gradually decreased since 2010, when 39% of Europeans could not afford to take a week holidaying away from their home. However, due to lockdowns and border closure implemented across the world in 2020 to slow down the rapid spread of the coronavirus, this downward trend is likely to halt in 2020.

    Among EU Member States, Romania recorded the highest share of individuals in this situation, with the majority of Romanians (54%) being unable to afford a one-week annual holiday in 2019.

    Residents of Greece came second, with 49% not being able to take a one-week holiday away from home, followed by Croatia (48%), Cyprus (45%) and Italy (44%).

    In contrast, at the lower-end of the scale, only 10% of people in Sweden were unable to afford a one-week annual holiday, followed by Denmark and Luxembourg (both 11%), Finland (12%), Germany and Austria (both 13%).

    Compared with 2010, the percentage of people who were unable to afford a one-week holiday away from home each year declined across all Member States, with the exception of Italy and Greece where it increased 4 percentage points (pp) and 3 pp respectively.

    The largest declines were recorded in Latvia (-35 pp), Malta (-30 pp), Bulgaria and Poland (both -27 pp) and Estonia (-26 pp).

  • Wizz Air announces 14 new routes to / from Ukraine

    Wizz Air announces 14 new routes to / from Ukraine

    With the new services, Wizz Air is bringing back Italian routes to its Ukrainian network and offering passengers travel opportunities to Rome, Milan, Venice, Naples, Verona, Catania and Bologna (Italy) from Kyiv, Lviv, Kharkiv, Odesa and Zaporizhzhia. 

    All travellers can already book tickets to these destinations at fares from as low as UAH 579 / EUR 19.99.

    Wizz Air started flying to Ukraine in 2008, and since then the airline has carried over 11 million passengers to and from Ukraine.

    Today’s announcement brings Italian destinations closer to Ukrainian passengers, offering in total 77 routes to 15 countries from five Ukrainian airports.

  • Tourism nights dropped sharply in March and April 2020

    Tourism nights dropped sharply in March and April 2020

    From January to April 2020, the number of nights spent in tourist accommodation establishments in the EU, such as hotels, holiday and other short-stay accommodation, camping grounds, recreational vehicle parks and trailer parks, totalled 353 million, a decline of 44% from January-April 2019.

    In terms of individual months within this period, the most substantial falls in the number of nights spent in tourist accommodation establishments were recorded in March (-62%) and April (-95%) compared with the same months of 2019.

    Prior to the pandemic, there had been a small improvement in the number of nights spent in tourist accommodation, with increases of 5% and 6% in January and February respectively.

    There was a similar trend displayed in the number of nights spent in tourist accommodation, regardless of whether the guests were from the reporting country or foreign countries.

    The number of nights spent in tourist accommodation establishments declined across all Member States, for which data are available, in January-April 2020 when compared with a year earlier, ranging from a 26% decline in Austria to a drop of 70% in Croatia.

    The declines were in excess of 40% for 16 out of 25 Member States.

  • Less than 1/3 of the hotels on the Black Sea coast have welcomed tourists

    Less than 1/3 of the hotels on the Black Sea coast have welcomed tourists

    Capital.bg shows that until July 6, of the 8.800 hotels and other accommodation places on the Bulgarian seaside, only 2.500 have accepted tourists, which is less than 28%.

    But this is not the worse news. The total nights spent since the beginning of the season are around 384 thousand for the entire coast.

    By comparison – data from the National Statistical Institute show that last year, which also did not start very strongly, in the months of May and June alone, in Sunny Beach they were three times more tourists – nearly 1.25 million. Golden Sands at the same time last year reported nearly 912.000 overnight stays, according to official statistics.

    It is the two largest resorts that traditionally work with foreigners that are currently feeling the brunt of the impact on tourism.

    From the beginning of the season to July 6 in Golden Sands there were only 51 hotels open, which is 30 per cent of all.

    In Sunny Beach, the picture is even blacker: there are only 137 sites open in the resort, only 16.3% of all.