Romania, fifth-to-last in EU for drawing foreign tourists

Romania was fifth-to-last in the European Union (EU) in 2018 for the number of foreign tourists, ahead only of much smaller countries, such as Luxembourg and the Baltic states. Moreover, foreign tourists accounted for only 19% of the overnight stays in Romanian hotels and guesthouses last year, the lowest share in the EU, according to data from the European statistical office Eurostat. Non-resident tourists spent 5.3 million nights in tourist accommodation units in Romania, in 2017, up by only 1.3% compared to 2017. Only Luxembourg (2.5 million nights), Lithuania (3.7 mln), Latvia (3.8 mln) and Estonia (4.2 mln) had lower numbers, but all these countries are much smaller than Romania. In the region, Romania is far behind Hungary, which registered 15.3 million overnight stays by non-resident tourists, Poland – 17.7 million and Bulgaria – 17.8 million, while Czechia is a regional leader in this area with 26.8 million overnight stays by foreign tourists, Eurostat data shows. Romania, a country known for its natural beauty, has failed for many years to become a leisure tourist destination for several reasons, including poor transport and hotel infrastructure in many areas of the country, poor services and the lack of a coherent promotion strategy abroad. The European countries that managed to draw the highest numbers of foreign tourists in 2018 were Spain, with over 300 million overnight stays, Italy – 214 million, France – 141 million, UK – 133.5 million, and Greece – 91.5 million. Other important tourists destinations in EU were Austria – 88.7 million overnight stays by non-resident tourists, Germany – 86.7 million and Croatia – 83 million. Fewer tourists visit Romania in 2018, but they spend more editor@romania-insider.com (Photo source: Shutterstock)