Intercontinental is the most famous hotel in Bucharest, therefore you are in the best position to have a good image of what tourism means in this city. Is it mostly tourism in the classical sense, or is it more what we call "business tourism"?

If the definition of the tourist is somebody who travels, then, definitely, corporate tourists are our main clients. I would say probably more than 80% of our business comes from the corporate traveller. A small portion of that consists of conferences and meetings, but primarily the individual corporate traveller is our main client. We definitely need the leisure tourist, because the corporate traveller is not here during the weekends. You cannot run a truly successful business on a four or five-day week.

Why are so few weekend or leisure tourists in Bucharest?
I think the main reason, at the moment, is that Bucharest is relatively new on the market. Until recently, Bucharest has been pretty much "off the radar screen" for the western world. Today there's a lot more interest, because we are now in the EU, because there are several hundred million people that can drive to Bucharest now.

The other thing is that Romania, as a country, has an enormous appeal. Bucharest, itself, as a city, is not, perhaps, the most attractive capital city in the world. Having said that, there is potential for huge attraction. We have some wonderful buildings here, we have a very vibrant music scene, particularly classical music. I think the city needs to be marketed properly!

But you have to have the product to market and to sell, and there are a lot of issues that need to be addressed: the traffic, the overhead wires, the cleanliness, the dogs ... there are a lot of things which can be resolved in the medium term. The initial responsibility for creating Bucharest as a viable, safe, clean, attractive destination remains with the authorities.

In some countries there's the Ministry of Tourism, in other countries it may be the municipality itself. The next step, the promotion, is generally a combination between the private sector and either the government, or the mayor's office, or the local convention bureau.

The cooperation between hotels and travel agents is all right now?
Most of the cooperation that we have in this moment is solely related to the leisure group business, for the cruise industry, the Danube cruise. There's very little in the way of individual weekend travel, there's very little in the way of group travel that comes to Bucharest and goes around to see the country.

We have some fantastic museums here, we have art galleries, we have parks, we have the theatres, the Opera, the Atheneum concert hall. So there's a lot of potential. At the moment we are appealing to the rather more adventurous individual traveller. We don't have many couples staying in our hotel, but when I see a couple and ask "Why did you come to Bucharest?" they answer "We wanted to get here before the masses, before it becomes a popular destination"!

Did you have this kind of debate also with the Mayor, with the representatives of the municipality? Are there any discussions, any change of opinions on that matter?
Yes, there are! We had a meeting, about three months ago, with hotel managers and the Mayor's office and travel agents, tour operators. The difficulty, of course, is when a long-term plan needs to be put into action. Most politicians are elected for a definite period, or the end result of such a plan may be ten years down the road, and that's a long time in the life of a government official, or a politician. However, realistically, I have absolutely no doubt that Bucharest has the potential to be a weekend leisure destination. But Bucharest could also be a springboard: come in, spend a couple of days in the city, and then go to another destination.

As a big hotel, Intercontinental Bucharest certainly has its own strategy to attract more tourists. What facilities and what services do you offer, or you intend to offer, to your clients?
The first important message is that now we are a managed hotel, we are managed by Intercontinental, the new major shareholders have no operational involvement in the hotel whatsoever, and that's a very important distinction between being a franchise and a managed property.

From the point of view of the services we offer, they are very similar to any five-star hotel you will find in any other major city in the world. The differentiating factor between Intercontinental and the other brands is that we have a specific, proven, track record all over the world, we are the largest hotel company in the world, with seven brands. The Intercontinental brand is the top. We will spend twenty millions euros on a major renovation programme and that will involve newly-renovated guest rooms.

The 21st floor, where the famous Balada room is, will be transformed into a four hundred square metre club lounge, which will be unique in the city and probably one of the finest in Europe. We will completely renovate the ground floor, the lobby, the reception, the bar, and the restaurants. We will also spend over ten million euros on what we call "the back of the house": mechanical, electrical, air conditioning, plumbing, pipes, all these things the guest does not see but which make a big difference to the guest experience.

Do you have an estimate of the potential of leisure tourism in Bucharest?
I think about twenty to twenty five percent of our business could be leisure. Certainly, in the long run, not immediately. The big gap that we miss at the moment in Bucharest is the international conference business, which is a multi-billion dollar business. We don't have the facilities in the city, a Convention Centre to host a major convention.

Normally, you would be looking for a minimum of two and a half thousand people in a plenary session, but five to ten thousand is the long-term thinking. A lot of other cities do that: they build an initial Centre, but plan for an extension. The airport is also important: we don't have the big jets landing. All the jets that come are the 737s and the small Airbuses. The situation is the same for some other cities in this region: a new airport is a must, it's a gateway to prosperity.

This year many large hotels are opening in Bucharest, and many more are projected. Most of these hotels operate under famous international brands. How stimulating is this competition for Intercontinental Bucharest?
In Bucharest, there's a new five-star hotel opening next month, there's another hotel opening on Calea Victoriei, so, for the moment, if the business continues to grow I think there's room for us all. This year and next year will be rather challenging, we have already seen the trend: the excitement of joining the EU has bubbled down a little bit, the subprime crisis will have some effects here as well, as we've already seen a few of the major corporations are reducing their travel budgets. Our business is very cyclical, but in Bucharest, I think, the picture is good. We are very well located, we have a strong brand.