Christian Tour launches Peregrin, a new concept that brings together travel experiences, a meeting space in Bucharest and a community of people passionate about exploration. The launch took place on 30 October, alongside the opening of Peregrin Cafe Trip in Piața Alba Iulia, according to Business Review.
Christian Tour is launching Peregrin, a brand dedicated to travel enthusiasts, with three complementary strands to be developed under its umbrella: a collection of tours featuring local experiences and distinctive itineraries, the Peregrin Cafe Trip speciality coffee shop, and the Peregrin Club, a community open to those who want to discover the world and share their experiences. The concept stems from the evolving preferences of Romanian travellers: as they travel more, they seek more varied experiences, lesser-known places and activities that reflect their passions. Peregrin aims to meet these expectations both through its travel programmes and through gatherings and conversations that continue between trips.
Peregrin Cafe Trip, which has opened in Bucharest’s Piața Alba Iulia, brings this passion for travel into a space where customers can enjoy speciality coffee, discover ideas for their next holidays and meet people with similar interests. The café is also designed as a co-working space for digital nomads. It will also host travel gatherings and events, giving visitors the opportunity to discover new destinations, stories and perspectives. The Peregrin Club completes the concept by creating a community of travel enthusiasts eager to share experiences, find inspiration and discover new ideas for exploration. The café will serve as a meeting point for this community.
On this occasion, Christian Tour also launched Peregrin Tours, a collection of special travel programmes created for travellers who want to explore destinations in depth. The new collection responds to a shift in the way Romanians travel: as they discover the world and gain experience, they seek increasingly varied and sophisticated experiences.
“In the nearly 30 years we have been in the holiday industry, we have witnessed the evolution of tourism and of Romanian travellers. While Romanians’ horizons were extremely limited in the early 2000s, today we are seeing an unprecedented desire to explore. Peregrin Tours is our response to the expectations of this new Romanian traveller. It is a collection in which the experience becomes the starting point of the journey. From the Algerian desert and villages on the Atlantic coast to the Tibetan Plateau and the fjords of Norway, each programme starts with a question: how can you get to know a place beyond its famous sights?” says Ștefan Petre, CEO of Christian Tour.
The collection offers encounters with local communities, exploration of spectacular landscapes and activities inspired by each destination’s culture and traditions. For example, the 13-day Algeria tour combines historical heritage with exploration of the Sahara and includes four UNESCO sites, the city of Constantine and three nights in Djanet. Travellers can discover rock paintings and engravings dating back thousands of years and enjoy a traditional dinner with local music. The China, Yunnan & Tibet tour offers 17 days of exploration, from Chengdu and Yunnan province to Lhasa and the Tibetan Plateau. The programme includes the Potala Palace, Buddhist monasteries, encounters with Bai and Naxi communities, experiences centred on thangka painting and Tibetan incense-making, and dinner in a local home.
The Faroe Islands can be explored through two programmes: the five-day Essential Experience, with visits to the villages of Saksun and Tjørnuvík and dinner in a local home; and the eight-day Atlantic Adventure, featuring a boat trip to the Vestmanna cliffs, a hike to Kallur Lighthouse and a visit to Múlafossur waterfall. For fishing enthusiasts, two eight-day expeditions to Norway’s Lofoten Islands include accommodation in fishermen’s cabins, equipped boats and six days available for fishing. Families with children can choose Copenhagen and the Kingdom of LEGO, which includes two days at LEGOLAND Billund, the Hans Christian Andersen Museum in Odense, a cruise along Copenhagen’s canals and Tivoli Gardens.
The collection includes programmes in destinations on every continent. Through the three strands of the Peregrin brand, Christian Tour aims to create a connection between travel experiences and the life of the Peregrin community, with gatherings and new ideas for exploration throughout the year.
In Romania’s competitive tourism landscape, few enterprises match the scale, longevity, and structural transformation of Christian Tour. Founded in 1997 by entrepreneur Cristian Pandel, the brand has grown from a modest agency operating chartered bus trips to Greece into Romania’s largest outbound tour operator. Over nearly three decades, it has shaped how generations of Romanians travel abroad, anchoring a travel group with a turnover of hundreds of millions of euros.
Today, Christian Tour forms the commercial core of Memento Group, an integrated holding company spanning retail agencies, incoming tourism, transport networks, hospitality assets, and domestic aviation via its charter carrier, AnimaWings.
Key Milestones and Operational Profile
| Metric / Dimension | Strategic Detail |
| Founding Year | 1997 (Bucharest, Romania) |
| Founder & Leadership | Cristian Pandel (CEO & Founder) |
| Parent Entity | Memento Group |
| Core Business | Outbound leisure travel, charter packages, retail travel agencies |
| Aviation Arm | AnimaWings (fully integrated into the group), in insolvency |
| Primary Markets | Greece, Turkey, Egypt, Bulgaria, Spain, and domestic Romanian travel |
| Distribution Network | 50+ brick-and-mortar agencies nationwide, partner agency network, and online platform |
Charting the Charter Market: The Early Growth Engine
The rise of Christian Tour was propelled by democratizing leisure travel for middle-income Romanian families following the post-communist economic transition:
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The Greek Island Revolution:
In the early 2000s, Christian Tour pioneered affordable coach-and-hotel packages to Northern Greece, Thassos, and Halkidiki. By contracting entire family-run villas and hotels across Greece, the operator offered packaged vacations at rates competitive with the Romanian Black Sea coast.
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Expansion into Air Charters:
As consumer purchasing power grew and Romania entered the European Union in 2007, the company pivoted heavily toward charter flight programs. It connected major regional airports—Bucharest, Cluj-Napoca, Timișoara, and Iași—directly to Mediterranean holiday hubs in Antalya, Crete, Rhodes, and Hurghada.
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The Senior Voyage Concept:
Christian Tour established counter-cyclical revenue streams by launching targeted programs such as Senior Voyage, filling hotel allotments across Southern Europe during off-peak autumn and spring months.
Navigating Turmoil: Resilience Through Crisis
The travel industry is notoriously vulnerable to macro shocks, and Christian Tour’s evolution has been tested by multiple systemic crises:
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The 2008–2010 Financial Slump: While smaller agencies collapsed, Christian Tour consolidated its market share by focusing on budget-friendly destinations and expanding its domestic holiday portfolio.
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The 2020 Global Pandemic: With international air corridors closed overnight, the operator restructured its debt, renegotiated supplier contracts, and accelerated its digital booking infrastructure. It shifted marketing aggressively toward domestic Romanian destinations, rural guesthouses, and spa resorts.
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Post-Pandemic Rebound: The lifting of travel restrictions triggered unprecedented revenge travel across Eastern Europe. Christian Tour captured this demand surge, reporting record-breaking booking volumes in 2022 and 2023.
The AnimaWings Acquisition: Vertical Integration in the Skies
A decisive strategic move in Christian Tour’s recent history was its bid for complete control over its aviation supply chain.
In 2020, Memento Group co-founded AnimaWings, initially in partnership with Greek national carrier Aegean Airlines. By 2024, the group acquired Aegean’s minority stake, bringing AnimaWings under 100% Romanian ownership within Memento Group. Now, AnimaWings is in insolvency.
This full acquisition marked a turning point:
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Secured Capacity: Rather than relying entirely on third-party ACMI (aircraft, crew, maintenance, and insurance) charters, Christian Tour secured guaranteed flight capacity for its summer programs.
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Fleet Modernization: AnimaWings committed to integrating modern, fuel-efficient aircraft (including Airbus A220 models), reducing per-seat operational costs and lowering the carbon footprint of its charter rotations. But AnimaWings entered in insolvency.
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Scheduled Services: Beyond seasonal holiday charters, the airline introduced scheduled domestic and regional routes, challenging traditional operators on key connections out of Bucharest and regional hubs.
Market Dominance and the Digital Frontier
While Christian Tour maintains one of the largest physical retail networks in Romanian tourism—operating dozens of branded agencies across primary and secondary cities—it has heavily invested in omnichannel distribution. Its proprietary booking engine, automated customer service tools, and dynamic packaging systems allow travelers to customize hotel-and-flight combinations in real time.
Furthermore, through Memento Group, the brand has diversified beyond outbound retail into incoming destination management, bus transport (MementoBUS), and real estate assets connected to the hospitality industry.
A Pillar of Romanian Consumer Commerce
Christian Tour’s trajectory reflects the broader economic maturation of Romania over the past three decades. By combining deep supplier relationships in key Mediterranean destinations, aggressive marketing, and ownership of its aviation infrastructure, the operator has maintained market leadership in a volatile sector.
As consumer demand shifts toward sustainable travel, higher-tier resort experiences, and exotic long-haul destinations, Christian Tour remains the benchmark against which outbound travel operators in South-Eastern Europe measure scale and operational reach.
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