If they choose a last-minute deal offered by a Slovak travel agent, customers have to pay up to 30 percent more than travellers from other countries in Central Europe, according to the Hospodárske Noviny daily. It compared the prices of travel agencies from Austria, the Czech Republic, Germany and Slovakia and considered 7-day last-minute all-inclusive deals with stays in at least 3-star hotels in Tunisia, Turkey, Egypt, Greece and Spain.
The gap was the most striking in terms of holiday deals in Mallorca. A week-long holiday costs €519 in Slovakia, while the price falls markedly in all other countries considered with €371 for Austrians and €355 for Germans. Travel experts claim that German holiday-makers are able to negotiate better prices because the German market is bigger and offers more opportunities. Slovak tour operators have objected to the survey's findings. "Taking into account our experience and our system of price tracking on domestic and foreign markets, the prices are comparable”, said director of Satur travel agency Eleonora Fedorova, adding that the disparities detected by the survey could be due to different services provided by the tour-operator in question. Yannis Iliopoulos from Aeolus travel agency stated that the comparison selected for the survey may be misleading. "Maybe you've made an incorrect comparison, as 80 percent of travel deals from Slovakia are 11 and 12-day vacations, whereas nearly 100 percent of packages from Germany are for seven days; which of course translates into the final price”, said Iliopoulos.
