Bulgaria defeats Romania in tourism game

Although twice smaller than Romania, Bulgaria managed to make $1.3bn in tourism revenues last year, namely twice Romania’s revenues, although the European Union’s statistic bulletin for 2001 shows Bulgaria’s hotel and similar unit accommodations to amount to 117,000 compared with Romania’s 200,000.
How could this happen? Bulgaria was much faster in completing the tourism privatisation, which has attracted major investments, specialists say. “The Bulgarians set up joint ventures with French and German partners, which led to a substantial development of the seaside resorts,” Alexandru Stancu, general manager of the National Tourism Research and Development Institute (INCDT) says. For instance, Germany-based company TUI opened several hotels on the Bulgarian Coast as early as five or six years ago, while its first hotel in Romania is due to open this season. Second, the Bulgarian Government has invested more money in promotion abroad. “Over the last few years, Romania has made it into travel guides, which Bulgaria has never left,” the INCDT manager says. The operators on the Romanian market feel they need more support from the Government in order to catch up with Bulgarian tourism. ZF