However, at the same time, Romanians spent a record sum of 311m euros over the three summer months on holidays abroad, up 7% against the same period last year, so what is the explanation for these results?
"A major problem for internal tourism is the undeveloped leisure industry, which lures tourists to spend a lot of money during their holidays. For instance, countries such as Greece and Turkey launched very cheap travel packages this year, which left foreign tourists with much more spending money at their holiday destinations. Romanians prove to be extremely good tourists. In Greece, an average Romanian tourist spends around 180 euros per day, while a German tourist spends no more than 19 euros. However, the problem is our inability to persuade foreign tourists to spend as much money in Romania as we spend abroad. This is the paradox of tourism with Romanians," believes Traian Badulescu, spokesman of the National Association of Travel Agencies of Romania.
Whereas during last year's three summer months foreigners spent 299m euros on holidays in Romania, this year foreign tourists spent 266m euros, even though the number of tourists increased by around 10%, according to statistical data.
Coastal resorts registered an over 90% occupancy rate for most of the season, but that was due to Romanian tourists, not foreigners. Another problem for domestic tourism is that most foreigners visit for business purposes, because leisure travel is still undeveloped.
"(...) With a good marketing campaign, we will be able to see some positive results by 2009," says Badulescu. According to him, destinations due to witness a significant tourist inflow next year will be Sibiu, the Ardeal area, as well as the Danube Delta. At the same time, travel related to events is also expected to develop, especially when Bucharest hosts the NATO summit.
Romanians beat record after record in terms of the sums earmarked for holidays abroad. Thus, in the three summer months, Romanians spent 311m euros on foreign holidays, from 289m euros a year ago. However, considering the summer season lasted for 5 months, Romanians' expenditures reached almost half a billion euros. This season, around 700,000 Romanian tourists chose to spend their holidays abroad.
"In 2007, Romanians' expenditures clearly followed an upward trend. Their purchasing power rose and so did their travel budgets," says Cristina Irimia, marketing manager at J'Info Tours travel agency. Concerning Romanian tourists' preferred destinations; Turkey registered the most significant increase, where the number of tourists increased by 50%.
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