Number of Romanians to travel abroad adds 25% this year, tourism association says

The number of Romanian tourists who traveled outside the borders this year rose 25 percent versus the previous as higher wages prompted more people to choose other countries for the holidays, according to the head of the National Association of Tourism Agencies (ANAT), Dragos Anastasiu.

Most Romanians went to Greece, but Turkey witnessed the highest growth rate this summer. Bulgaria also remained one of the most requested destinations.

Atanasiu estimates that more than 250,000 tourists went to Greece this summer, about 150,000 to Bulgaria and at least 130,000 people chose Turkey. Spain counted around 70,000 Romanian tourists, Tunisia some 50,000 and Egypt about 20,000 people.

Romania's seaside resorts witnessed a descending trend in the number of nights spent per capita, from six to four, following a significant advance in weekends, Atanasiu said. He added authorities failed to make efforts to promote the hotels and there are still problems with the green areas, parking places and stray dogs.

Atanasiu deems these problems will not be solved as long as the summer season is not be prolonged from April to October, instead of June to September.

The number of foreign tourists that spent their vacation at Romania's seaside resorts dropped around 20 percent this summer versus the previous, especially on lower number of German tourists.

ANAT counts about 16,000 employees, of which more than 11,000 are accounted by tourism agencies.

NewsIn