Pension closures and defaults on payments are rife in Danube Delta

One of Romania's leading travel destinations - the Danube Delta - Europe's third largest delta, attracts only 70,000 tourists per year, 14 times fewer than other much smaller European deltas, such as the French one (the Camargue Delta) and the Italian one (Delta del Po). This compares with 70,000 tourists coming to the Romanian seacoast in one day in July alone.

Two weeks ago, one of the most luxurious travel complexes in the Danube Delta, Delta Nature Resort, announced it was closing this year because of a lack of tourists. Moreover, owners of lodging facilities say they are seeking to sell their assets in the area, although there is not much competition in the Danube Delta on the segment of pensions and of mini-hotels, with there being only 191 authorised lodging facilities.

On the other hand, pension owners who have yet to put their facilities up for sale or have yet to close them say they are defaulting on their payments and have their accounts frozen.

"The tourist complex I run ended last year with losses, amid an almost 500,000-RON (125,000-euro) turnover. A mere 23% of the rooms were occupied. Because of the lack of money I couldn't pay debts to the state so now I have my accounts frozen because of the delayed tax payments," said Traian Apostu.