Page 23 - BNE_magazine_10_2019 kolomoisky

bne October 2019 Companies & Markets I 23
Web based booking services and mobile apps help to open up lesser known regions to tourists, and according to Streif tourists are “expanding their adventures beyond the oversaturated spots in Greece and Croatia and exploring more of Eastern Europe”.
She cites Bosnia & Herzegovina as an emerging destination, which now has over 1,000 listings on the GetMy boat site. This is around a quarter of those in neighbouring Croatia, long
a popular destination for island hopping. Elsewhere in Southeast Europe, the company has over 1500 listings in Turkey, 300 in Montenegro, 200 in Hungary and 100 in Bulgaria. Globally, the site has over 130,000 listings in 184 countries.
This is a big change of the company that was founded in San Francisco in January 2013, as initially almost all of its business was concentrated in San Diego, Miami, Fort Lauderdale, and other US-based boating locations.
While GetMyBoat has been testing ads in various cities, Streif says a huge part of the increase has been “completely organic – with more travellers discovering our app and trying it out, talking about it with their friends, and spreading the message among travel communities”.
“We've had a great year in all our markets, the US, the Caribbean, and beyond, but Eastern Europe sticks out because it's a place that until recently, wasn't a huge point of interest on the average tourist's travel list,” Streif says.
“In Eastern Europe, the most popular experiences are private boat tours on smaller motor yachts, sailing tours, island hopping, and river cruising”
“Now we are seeing lots of boat bookings in this region, particularly in the Balkans in spots like Montenegro, Croatia, and Albania, as the Adriatic Sea is so beautiful and offers incredible sightseeing opportunities. It hasn't grown as quickly as the US/North American market, but the recent surge is noticeable and is a trend we are expecting to continue into 2020 and beyond. More people want to travel
to these beautiful, lesser-known locations, as they
are affordable and offer a host of amazing experiences.”
Looking at why this is, Streif enthuses about the coastline and river cruising opportunities in the region. “The islands in the Adriatic Sea and the rugged coastlines are stunning –just as beautiful as more expensive spots in the Mediterranean and around Europe, but in Eastern Europe, you can enjoy the luxury without the high price tag,” she says. It's sunny and hot in the summer and shoulder seasons, affordable, and there are countless activities you can enjoy on the sea, from sightseeing to scuba diving.”
Czechs show their back to Europeans in e-commerce via mobiles, according to JP Morgan
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according to a study by US bank JP Morgan, daily iDnes.cz reported on August 28. Czechs make over 54% of e-purchases through their mobiles.
“The popularity of shopping using mobile phones has increased significantly,” confirmed the Director of the Association for e-Commerce Jan Vetyska. The fast start of Apple Pay and Google Pay mobile payment applications also show the growing popularity of mobile phone shopping. Over the six months since February 19, 82,000 Czech bank Ceska Sporitelna's clients have digitized their payment cards.
Ceska Sporitelna also confirmed an increase in the volume of purchases in online stores via mobile phones. The number of mobile banking users grew three times year-on-year, from approximately 200,000 users in 2018 to 630,000 in 2019. "This suggests that e-shop purchases via mobile phones had a similar growth curve," said Ceska Sporitelna spokesman Filip Hruby, daily quoted.
Czech e-shops are expected to grow the fastest among 18 European countries, at 16% until 2021. There are currently around 41,000 e-shops in the Czech Republic. In 2018, the Czechs spent CZK135bn online, up by 17% y/y, with the highest share for Apple and Samsung (40%). The fastest growing industry was food with 52% growth.
The country is one of the leading countries in Europe for using contactless card payments both in the country and abroad, carrying out more than 1bn of online payments in 2018. “The volume of transactions reached almost CZK700bn (€27.3bn),” said the Executive Director of the Credit Card Association Roman Kotlan, adding that the trend of further expansion of non-cash transactions has been growing.
he Czech Republic is most perspective European country for the development of e-commerce among the frequent users of mobile phones for online shopping,
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