2016 is expected to be the best year for Romanian tourism since 1989

There are good signs for Romanian tourism that could register an increase of at least 18 percent in 2016, which would thus become the best year since 1989, Anca Pavel-Nedea, President of the National Authority for Tourism (ANT) announced on Thursday in a press conference.

She noted that the industry had a growth of 15 percent in the first four months of the year, which is a significant increase, given that it’s not the best period of year.

Overnight stays had increased by 13 percent and the occupancy rate in categorized-accommodation units was 22 percent. Foreigners’ arrivals were up by 11 percent over the same period, ANT’s President also shows.

“I know we started hard, but compared to others, such high increases are recorded only by few countries,” Anca Pavel-Nedea noted.

At his turn, Taleb Rifai, Secretary-General of Madrid-based World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), attending the event, stated that the golden rule in this filed is at least 1 percent of revenues to be invested in promotion.

In this regard, Anca Paul -Nedea showed that the revenues amounted to EUR 1.8 billion, but the promotion budget for this year is only EUR 2 million.

“It was considered a minimum annual budget allocation for the next four years of around EUR 5 million,” ANT official added.

Rifai also stated that Romania has become a success story in tourism and is deserves more, as it has attractions nowhere else to be found. He said the most important thing is that tourists in Bucharest will be impressed with the smile of everyone there, a real and very sweet smile, which you don’t get to see in other parts of the world, adding that Romania has become a success story in tourism and it deserves more.

According to him, there were over 2 billion tourists worldwide in 2015. Tourism contributed 10 percent to the global Gross Domestic Product (GDP), generating USD 1.4 trillion. Tourists spend USD 3.5 billion a day worldwide.