Lack of cheap domestic flights to Romania's seaside resorts sends 100,000 potential tourists abroad instead

The lack of flights connecting various regional Romanian cities to the seaside city of Constanta translates into over 100,000 Romanian tourists giving up on their seaside plans. Potential tourists from the cities of Cluj – Napoca, Timisoara, Iasi or Targu – Mures discarded the Romanian seaside from their holiday plans as the train or car trip is too long and tiring. Many of them instead chose to fly for holidays abroad, according to data from the Romanian Association of Tourism Agencies (ANAT). “People from Cluj no longer come to the Romanian seaside. If they can arrive to Majorca in three hours, are they crazy to spend 12 hours by car to the Neptun resort?” said Alin Burcea, first vice-president of ANAT, quoted by Mediafax newswire. The same applies to tourists from Iasi, Timisoara and Targu – Mures. Especially families with kids are searching for cheap and easy transportation, and a return flight to the seaside should cost up to EUR 130, according to Burcea. The association has asked Romanian state-owned airline Tarom to introduce such flights and change the commercial policy. “So far we've been receiving in February offers for charters in May, now we received the offers in October. For charters we would like to receive the offer in August, like in the civilized world. If they don't change policies, nobody will take charters from them anymore,” Burcea added. editor@romania-insider.com