Tour operator: Foreign tourists unlikely to come to RO seaside without charter flights

The lack of charter flights to Constanța’s Kogălniceanu airport means that foreign tourists are unlikely to reach the Romanian seaside this year, warns a top local tour operator.

“What we lack right now are chartered flights from other destinations to Kogălniceanu airport,” said Aurelian Marin, owner of the large Romanian tour operator Paradis Vacanțe de Vis, quoted by Profit.ro. “For someone to fly a plane to Romania – which is not known as a destination for tourism – they take on huge risks, EUR 700,000 per year, for two weekly flights.”

He says that Government should step in and aid airlines. “Bulgaria and other countries give that support,” Marin said.

Without charter flights, only around 40,000 foreign tourists are expected to reach the Romanian seaside this year, fewer than before the pandemic.

Marin also decried the lack of long-term investments in the tourism industry in Romania. He gave the example of the Mamaia Nord area, where most of the investments were made not by hotel companies, but by real estate developers looking to resell properties for short-term profit.

Investors from the tourism and real estate sectors have announced investments in Romania’s southern seaside resorts of Neptun, Jupiter, Venus, Saturn, and Olimp worth EUR 250 million. However, tour operators remain skeptical over whether or not the investments are part of a long-term strategy aimed at developing tourism in the area or a local real estate bubble.

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