Romania, biggest drop in overnight stays in EU, smallest ratio of foreign tourists

Romania saw the biggest decrease of overnight stays in tourist accommodation units in the EU last year, when the average in the EU posted an increase of 2.8 percent. Romania is also the country with the lowest ratio of foreigners out of the total overnight stays in the EU. Romania reported 15.1 million overnight stays in hotels and other tourist accommodation units, a drop of 8.7 percent on 2009, according to Eurostat. Greece, UK, Slovenia and Italy also reported drops on this indicator. Greece, a country which was affected more by the crisis in terms of image, had an overnight stays drop of 2.3 percent. The biggest increases were recorded in Estonia – 14.1 percent, followed by Latvia – 11.6 percent. The overnight stays of foreign tourists in Romania went up by 3.2 percent, to 2.7 million. The total weight of foreign tourists in the number of tourists was of 18 percent. Apart from Romania, foreign tourists make just a small fraction of total overnight stays in Germany – 21 percent, Sweden – 23 percent, Finland – 27 percent and Poland – 30 percent. The biggest weight was recorded in Bulgaria, where foreigners made 70 percent of the overnight stays. editor@romania-insider.com