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| Anticrisis Menu. Business is slow at many of Europe’s restaurants. Prices are certainly not going up and many are coming down. Enlarge photo |
While in Spain recently, I saw a guy wearing a T-shirt that read “Surviving the Psychological Economic Crisis.” If you lost your job or your retirement savings, the crisis is real. But apparently lots of people are still working and still committing themselves to travel this summer. I’m leaving for Norway in four days and ready for fish balls.
Having just been in Europe for two months, I was trying to get a feel for how the “crisis” was playing out in the tourist industry there. It’s hard to say. It seemed many restaurants were deathly quiet…almost too quiet to properly assess for my guidebook research. That was both scary and frustrating. But many of the sights were packed as never before. Dubrovnik was a literal human traffic jam at the height of the midday cruise ship crowd scene. The month before, in Rome, I joined the touristic mosh pit as thousands of visitors oozed slowly into and then out of the Pantheon. It was literally wall-to-wall people as I’d never experienced before. And everyone seemed to be having a blast. Regardless of whether numbers are up or down, those who are able to travel seem to be happy as could be. Everywhere I went, I was impressed by tourists on a travel high.
Clearly business is down in Europe. Guides told me the spring was saved only by the work they got taking school groups around. Group bookings are way down. In Eastern Europe, many hotels that generally accommodate groups have simply shut down. Travelers encounter restaurants both more generous and more aggressive. You’ll notice prices are being kept low. Many places advertise desperate specials. I even encountered “anticrisis menus” in Spain. While restaurants are feeling the pinch and creatively trying to win the business of diners, once they have you at the table, you need to be careful that they don’t push extras on you. Be clear, be strong, and understand the prices before you order. A restaurant I really like in Rome has great prices, but a 20 percent cover. Suddenly it’s not such a great deal.
Little hotels are being hurt as big hotels drop prices to attract business. Suddenly a small family-run guesthouse that used to be a fine value at 80 euros is no less expensive than the big, four-star, business-class hotel with rooms on the push list.
Cities are being more aggressive too. In Florence, everyone pays 4 euros each to book entry to its more popular museums. Even local tour companies need to prepay and prebook admission times long in advance. My favorite Florentine tour company is reeling from the cost as they booked thousands of entries at the start of the season, expecting a busy schedule of their groups visiting the Uffizi and Accademia. Now that the season is here, they are not running as many tours as anticipated…and the city won’t refund all those 4-euro booking fees.
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While our tour business at Europe Through the Back Door was slow for the first four months of the year, things have snapped back. People are less nervous about the safety of their savings, and with summer approaching, are booking tours at the last minute as never before. Suddenly we are calling guides who we thought would have no work from us and asking if they’re available to take groups in the summer and fall.
Rick, glad to hear business is picking up for you. Let’s hope the small family-run guesthouses and other local businesses are able to survive. I was in Spain in June and saw quite a few anticrisis menus and their prices were very good. Your Spain book was very useful and I was pleasantly surprised (or frustrated depending on how you look at it) to learn that some of the hotels you recommended were fully booked months in advance. Keep up the good work.
My impression in the Belgium and the Netherlands this past April was that restauranteurs who cater to tourist struggled to fill seats… but establishments that rarely see tourist traffic were as busy as ever.
Rick, your tours have “snapped back” indeed. Last spring you thought tour numbers might drop to 2/3rds or so from last year. A quick counting now of tours departed, and those yet to do, many with waitlists, show business is good, closer to typical year numbers. Credit etbd’s loyal travelers, calmer finance atitudes, plus your tour’s true travel value. Please excuse my enthusiasm, but this once-and-always “sales guy” never stops promoting your terrific products. Looking forward to the istanbul etbd city tour on my birthday in october. Larry from springfield, always thankful taking my “sales commission,” via annual alumni tour discounts.
in the above entry, the phrase,”as never before” is used twice – that he’s using “as never before” as never before, what does that mean exactly?
I am going to skip my yearly trip to Europe this year, money is just too tight. I thought around April that we had turned the corner but now find things much much worse. Houses in my area are starting to sit vacant and more people are losing their jobs so I am going to sit this one out rather than put something on my credit card. But to everyone else going this year…I hope you have a great time, always something new to explore.
Rick, I always enjoy reading the thought-provoking and interesting comments on your Blog. I attended your Tour Alum Reunion in January and was a bit concerned when you indicated that bookings were down about 25-30%. I’m pleased to hear that your tours have now “snapped back”. I’ve just returned from my third tour (“Paris & The South of France”, outstanding as always!) and looking forward to many more! Like Larry in Springfield, I enthusiastically recommend your tours to anyone that will listen!
I do not think there is anything psychological about 6.7 million Americans out of work. This is a real economic problem we will have to claw our collective way out of.
I work for one of those companies you always hear about in the news. I committed to going to Europe this year only after I was relatively certain I would have a job to come back to (got a great deal by buying late, too). I had two friends back out of this trip because of the economic situation. People are having to make choices they’d rather not have to make.
Rick: I agree about the crush of tourist in certain areas. Walking anywhere in Venice was like trying to fight to your car after a professional sporting event. However, traveling through eastern Europe has been laid back experience. As a first visitor to Lljubjana, Plitvice Lakes, Novi Sad, Budapest, and Zagreb, I have no past experience in these area, but the cities have been uncrowded, and people warm and wonderful.
Rick: my neighbor to my left lost his job for the second time in three years. (He is a PhD in chemistry, no less.) My neighbor to my right shot himself with a rifle last month because of his debts. He leaves two small children and a wife who will be scarred forever. Three homes on our street are foreclosed. This is not a psychological crisis but very real, and deeper than anything America has ever faced before. I say it’s even deeper than the Great Depression because people at least were aware of that one but now they are in denial about the extent of this meltdown. There are shanty towns, long food and job lines now just like in the 1930s. The only differences is then newsreel cameras were filming them and people were seeing them in theaters. Now the mainstream media basically ignores them–a tent city just miles from me in Sacramento has only been reported on once in six months–and instead gives us news 24/7 on Michael Jackson and Sarah Palin. I’ve never seen this country in deeper denail than it is now. We are lost, we are gone, and we don’t want to face it. I don’t want to travel on vacations when my world is melting around me and people I know and love are, literally, dying over bills and food, or lack of it.