More foreign tourists visited Romania last year. They spent over EUR 1.40 bn

1.91 million non-resident tourists have accommodated in Romania’s hotels and tourist boarding houses last year. According to National Institute of Statistics (INS) data, their total expenditure amounted to RON 5090.9 million (EUR 1.41 billion). Most of foreign tourists came from Germany (234,451), Italy (184,514) and Israel (139,425).

Number of tourists and their expenses were higher than 2013 – 1.71 M, RON 4.79 billion respectively.

The main reason of the non-resident tourists’ stay in Romania was: business, attend congresses, conferences, courses, fairs and exhibitions (61.3 percent of the total number of non-resident tourists), their expenditure being 68 percent of the total expenditure.

The second reason of the non-resident tourists’ stay in Romania was the travels for particular purpose (38.7 percent of the total number of non-resident tourists), their expenditure being 32 percent of the total expenditure. The travels for particular purpose include travels for holidays, shopping, sports and cultural events, visit friends and relatives, medical treatment, religion, transit and other activities.

According to INS, of the total business expenditure, the greatest weight is represented by the accommodation expenditure (50.6 percent), the accommodation with breakfast included being particularly preferred (93.6 percent of the total accommodation expenditure). The expenditure of non-resident tourists in restaurants and bars was of 16.1 percent and that for shopping of 11.9 percent. Of the total expenditure for shopping, 37.2 percent represented the expenses for purchasing wear apparel and footwear, followed by expenses for purchasing food and beverages (33.5 percent). The expenses with car rentals had a weight of 57.1 percent of the total expenditure for transport, while the expenses for the access to amusement parks, fairs, casinos, slot machines halls were 76.9 percent of the total expenditure for recreation.

Out of the total non-resident tourists arrived in Romania in 2014, 44.5 percent had organized their stay by travel agencies and 32.8 percent had organized their stay by themselves.

The main means of transportation used by the non-resident tourists arriving in Romania was the plane (77.4 percent of the total number of tourists). 12.8 percent of the total number of tourists used their own cars, followed by coaches and buses used by 7.8 percent and 2 percent used other means of transportation (train, river boats, car rentals, motorcycles etc.).

In terms of foreign tourist arrivals in tourist boarding houses, the largest share was held by those from Europe (77.2 percent of total foreign tourists), and of these 85.5 percent were from EU countries.