2024-08-31 09:28:34
The demand for rental cars (rent-a-car) is more balanced compared to last year, according to the observations of traders at the end of the summer season, which is traditionally the strongest for vacations and excursions.
“Travelers make their reservations in advance and look for a better price,” Milen Marinov, owner and manager of a company that manages the Top Rent A Car brand for car rentals in Bulgaria and beyond, told BTA the major airports of the Balkans. The company has been on the market in our country for over 20 years and is one of the leading providers of the service.
According to Marinov, in previous years there was an influx during the peak vacation months of July and August, and now the reservations are more evenly distributed among the others, which are connected with more trips – June and September. The company’s general observations show that the change in consumer habits is also a factor in lower service prices.
“We have about a 20 percent reduction in prices compared to last year in the marked summer months from June to August. This is also due to the competition between companies. We compensate it with a larger number of cars and more reservations, which maintains the level of income from 2023. he explained.
According to him, the profile of tourists has also changed compared to the strong year for this sector before the pandemic.
“This year, in terms of the number of tourists, we will probably reach and even surpass 2019, but I believe that the profile of tourists has changed. We had a lot of Germans, Scandinavians, Englishmen, while this year it seems that a large number are Romanians, Poles, a lot of Czechs , who are not the typical customers for the rent-a-car business,” said Milen Marinov.
According to him, Israeli tourists have traditionally been between 10-15 percent of their customers. Now their percentage is reduced to about 3-5 percent.
“Unfortunately, Bulgaria seems to be losing tourists who like to visit cultural and historical places, and mostly those who use the all-inclusive service on a permanent basis come here,” he commented.
The data from the reservations also show a revival of interest in our mountain resorts such as Bansko and Razlog, near Velingrad.
Increased visits to these places are also reported by officially published data of the Unified Tourist Information System (USTI) already in the second quarter of 2024. Specifically, among the most visited destinations by Bulgarians are the municipalities of Stolichna, Varna, Nesebar, Velingrad, Plovdiv, Burgas, Bansko , Sandanski, Samokov (including Borovets resort), Veliko Tarnovo, Hisarya, Razlog, etc.
A few days ago, the National Statistical Institute informed that in the second quarter of 2024, 1.209 million Bulgarian citizens made tourist trips in the country, and from January to the end of July they marked an increase of over 5 percent compared to the very strong year of 2019.
Milen Marinov pointed out that 5,000-7,000 cars are currently being rented in our country.
“We have started talks between the big companies to form an association in which we can partner in the protection of our interests and work with the state institutions for the development of the service,” he added.
Marinov clarified that these are international companies that are managed by Bulgarian teams on the principle of franchising in our country, following the rules and framework of the international brand.
According to him, there is still a very large gray sector in the car rental business of local companies operating with fewer cars and employees. “We are partnering with international brands to have customers request receipts, invoices and other documents to fight against this phenomenon,” he explained.
For more transparency, in addition to partnering with other close industry associations such as that of leasing companies and car importers, the company’s customer service has been entirely electronic since the beginning of August.
“Car rental contracts are digital, they are signed with an electronic signature, the same is true for damages – there is no longer a paper report and every customer checks their car with a digital report. We have stopped cash payments in our offices, that is, they are only with credit or debit cards, which unequivocally says that everything is transparent,” said the manager of Top Rent A Car.
Digitalization also allows optimization of the processes of processing more cars with the same number of employees.
The company reports another change in consumer behavior – a decrease in the number of reservations and passenger traffic at Varna Airport and an increase in Sofia Airport. At the same time, the cars rented in the capital travel to the sea, which, according to their observations, shows that this is the more profitable option for people to fly.
The company’s data also show that for July the average car rental is about 6 days. Small cars are the most sought after, as they are the cheapest, but more serious interest is also reported in those that are automatic.
Out of about 3,000 cars that the company currently rents out, 50 are electric cars and, according to Marinov, they are rented on an equal basis with others.
“For longer journeys, they are taken less often, but we also have such cases. They have gone as far as Greece with our electric cars, we have one electric car as far as Athens”, he gave an example.
Since spring, the company’s office at the Bucharest airport has also been operating.