Tourism revenues, down for the first time in 5 years

Romania’s international tourism revenues were 3% lower in the first half of this year compared with the same period last year and reached 381m euros, accounting for the first slump in the past five years. In other words, foreign tourists in the first half spent less than last year on their holidays in Romania, according to NBR data. “This is a somewhat unusual result given that the number of foreign tourists has increased by 20% since the start of the year. The only explanation is that we don’t yet know how to make foreign tourists spend more money,” believes Traian Badulescu, spokesman with the National Association of Travel Agencies (ANAT) of Romania. According to the National Statistics Institute, the number of foreign tourist who arrived in Romania increased by 18% in H1. Under the circumstances, another explanation for Romania’s drop in tourism revenues would be the tendency of foreigners’ holidays to become shorter. Dragos Anastasiu, general manager of Eurolines, says he expects tourism revenues to increase in H2.