Mountain, seaside and spa resorts did not manage to attract even 150,000 foreign tourists in accommodation facilities last year, according to data ZF centralized from National Statistics Institute (INS) reports, considering Austrians alone boasted 200,000 Romanian tourists last September.
Large cities, including Bucharest, are still the stars of Romanian tourism, but this indicator only shows that business travel is in fact supporting the entire industry. With revenue put by ZF at almost EUR160 million, large cities attracted over 1 million foreigners in accommodation facilities last year, but if asked, a Bucharest hotel manager would tell you that at weekends, when other European cities are full of tourists, Bucharest hotels are almost empty.
“Data show that most visitors arriving in Romania are not coming here for accommodation and sightseeing, but for other purposes,” said Lucian Marinescu, a senior associate with Trend Hospitality consultancy.
George Sorin Nicolescu, owner of Olimpic International travel agency, which brought 2,500 foreigners in Romania last year, says that in the absence of solid promotion, the number of foreigners coming to Romania will not rise.
“For instance, Slovenia organizes incoming fairs, inviting tour operators from across the world to sell Slovenia as a destination. We, too, need such a fair,” Nicolescu says.
Romania organizes only outgoing fairs, attended by foreign tour operators that want to attract Romanians to their travel resorts.
While the number of foreigners’ arrivals in Romania last year stood at 7.4 million, down 2% from 2009, according to the INS, the number of arrivals in accommodation facilities amounted to just 1.34 million. The number was just 54% higher than the one registered ten years ago. The most relevant indicator is related to arrivals in accommodation facilities, showing how many of the foreigners entering the country are tourists.
On the other hand, few high purchasing power foreigners arrived in Romania last year. According to INS data, Germans, Austrians and French, who earmark large travel budgets and are the main source of tourists in Europe, did not travel much to Romania. Only 395,000 arrivals by Germans and 131,000 arrivals by French were registered last year.
“The purchasing power of people visiting a country impacts the sum spent in that country and implicitly the development of certain fields. For Romanian tourism to grow, we need real tourists, who should come, travel around the country and use accommodation facilities,” said Marinescu.
(English version by Catalina Apostoiu, Editing by Loredana Fratila Cristescu)