Two cruise ships, Queen Victoria and Azura will arrive in the Romanian harbor Constanta on September 23 and 30. Over 7,000 foreigners on board the two ships will spend around ten hours in Romania and several hundred thousand euros on trips and souvenirs.

The Queen Victoria ship will arrive in Constanta on Sunday, September 23, with 2,000 mostly British passengers on board and 1,000 staff. The ship will be leaving from Southampton – UK and arrive in Palma de Majorca, Ialta and Odessa in Ukraine, then arrive in Constanta, before heading to Istanbul, Piraeus (Athens) in Greece, Porto in Portugal and then back to Southampton.

A week later, the Azura cruise ship will bring 3,000 passengers, again mostly British, and a staff of around 1,300. Azura will also set sail from Southampton and follow almost the same route as the Queen Victoria.

Passengers and a great part of the staff will go on shore in Constanta for a city tour, ending with a wine tasting and a folk show at a restaurant, then a wine tasting in Murfatlar, head to Histria and then to the Danube Delta. The whole program lasts for eight hours and costs EUR 40 per person.

Most of the passengers are British people over 50. The average spending of a tourist on souvenirs is EUR 70, according to Gheorghe Mărginean, the owner of Karpaten Turism, which handles tourism services for the groups in Romania. In total, some 65 buses will carry tourists on both ships to trips in Romania's Dobrogea region.

The Queen Victoria is run by Cunard, while Azura is managed by PO Cruises.

editor@romania-insider.com

(photo source: Cunard Facebook profile)