Slovak News Back to the news
Lower Revenues in Slovak Hotels in 2009 Not Only Due to Euro
Monday 18 January 2010 Zoom in | Print page
Strbske Pleso, January 18 (TASR) - Hotels and restaurants in Slovakia saw the number of their customers fall in 2009, along with a drop in revenues, partly because the strength of the euro made holidays in Slovakia more expensive for people in most neighbouring countries.
According to Hotels and Restaurants Union (ZHR) chairman Jozef Bendzala, the introduction of the new currency at the beginning of 2009 wasn't the only factor contributing to lower revenues, however. "It can't be clearly evaluated as the influence of the euro. Since the beginning of the year (2009) there have been more factors - such as the gas and the global economic crises," he said.
The drop in revenues in non-mountain resorts reached as much as 30-40 percent, while revenues in the High and Low Tatra mountains didn't fall as noticeably. "We noticed a fall of 18-20 percent in Strbske Pleso (Presov region)," Bendzala told TASR on Monday.
Hotels not only registered a lower number of visitors, but also fewer conferences and company meetings. Bendzala thinks that the drop was even worse in resorts with weaker infrastructure, where no investments had been made in order to improve services. "It's also about pricing policy. If hoteliers adjusted their prices to demand, bookings benefited," he stated.
On the other hand, Bendzala thinks that the euro helped to lure back German tourists, who traditionally like the Tatras. "The barrier is no longer so significant, we've become a stable country. The low fluctuation in the exchange rate is an asset to hoteliers and to tourists," he said.
All rights reserved. Any publishing or further dissemination of press releases and photographs from TASR's resources without TASR's prior written approval constitutes a violation of the Copyrights Act.
