Some 16,000 Israelis, the most numerous foreign tourists, spent their holidays in mountain resorts, while 6,100 Germans reached the seaside resorts. The biggest number of foreign tourists who visited the Danube Delta came from Germany, as well as Norway.
Hotels, pensions and villas across Romania hosted 1.7 million foreigners last year, up 3.7% against 2012, according to the National Statistics Institute. Bucharest and county capital cities attracted 76% of these visitors. Mountain resorts accommodated only 127,000 foreigners, namely 7.5% of the total number of foreign visitors.
“Romania has the potential to attract ten times more tourists than it attracted last year, but the marketing plan was not implemented. The first move was to create a website to promote Romanian destinations online and provide foreign visitors with information and the possibility of booking rooms, show tickets. The portal should include all tourism players,” said travel consultant Sorin Ionescu, a managing partner with Fivestar Hospitality.
The increase in the number of tourists last year is “an organic one, it cannot be based on moves made by authorities”.
Foreigners spent EUR1.1 billion in Romania in the first 11 months of 2013, up 10% against last year, according to the latest central bank data. The sum may have reached EUR1.2 billion for the entire 2013, according to ZF estimates.
By comparison, Poland managed to cash in $12 billion (EUR8.8 billion) from foreign tourists last year, according to The Warsaw Voice.
Germany leads in the ranking of countries sending the biggest number of visitors to Romania, with 228,000 persons. Of these, only 15,000 Germans reached mountain resorts.
Most visitors of Italy, ranking second, visited the country’s biggest cities, with only 7,200 of the 181,000 Italians accommodated in mountain resorts, while 1,600 chose the Romanian seaside.
France, coming third, sent 118,000 visitors to Romania.
Though around half a million Romanians spend their holidays annually in Greece and Turkey, only 39,000 Greeks and 38,000 Turks visited Romania last year, according to the statistics institute data.
(English version by Catalina Apostoiu)