Overall numbers of tourists visiting Romania have risen on last year, according to the country's National Statistics Institute (INS). Figures for both April and the first four months of the year were up on the respective periods last year. There were nearly 536,000 tourists (including Romanian tourists) in April this year, up 4 percent from the just over 515,000 recorded in the same month last year. The number of overnight stays was approximately double: just over a million but was slightly down on the figure for April 2012.

The total in 2013 until the end of April was up 6.9 percent to nearly 1.9 million, while the number of overnight stays went up a more modest 2.7 percent to some 3.6 million.

Romanian tourists account for the vast majority. Some 400,000 of the 536,000 tourists in April were Romanians, while over 780,000 of the million overnight stays were made by Romanians. During April, the number of Romanian tourists was up slightly on 2012, by 3.1 percent, however, the number of overnight stays made by Romanians was down by nearly 70,000 on last year. For the first four months of the year the number of Romanian tourists and the number overnight stays were both up.

The vast majority of the foreign tourists come from Europe: some 100,000 of the 130,000 foreign tourists in April, with a similar ratio appearing for overnight stays and for the first four months of the year. Numbers of European tourists were up across the board, with the majority coming from other EU Member States.

Asia, North America, South America and Africa accounted for the remaining foreign tourists, in descending order of volume. Again, figures were generally up, with the exception of Africa which although only accounting for tiny fraction of the overall number of tourists, showed falls.

editor@romania-insider.com

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