Romanians flee to shop abroad

Vineri, 21 decembrie 2007, 14:58 English | Business

Shopping tourism to Hungary, Austria and Germany is booming as holidays approach. Romanians from frontier and Transylvania cities go shopping via airplanes, personal cars or even by bus. The reason is simple: designer clothes at significantly lower sale prices. The shopping tourism even made exchange houses suffer from the lack of foreign currencies.

One of the favorite destinations is Hungary, namely hypermarkets in Nyiregyhaza, Debrecen, Bekescsaba or Budapest.

To compare prices:
Nike Cortez sports suit: 100 -150 RON in Hungary, 350 - 400 RON in Romania (1 euro = 3.55 RON)
Johnnie Walker Red Label: 40 RON in Hungary, 65-70 RON in Romania.
Laptop Acer 5310: 1300 RON in Hungary, 1800 Ron in Romania
Chicken meat: 5 - 5.5 RON in Hungary, 7 - 7.5 RON in Romania

Plus, shoppers say that merchandize bought from Hungary has a superior quality. Best buys include cosmetics, Christmas trees decorations, coffee, electronics, perfumes and food.