Tourism and holidays in Romania
Romanian tourists spent 75 million Euros on the New Years Eve celebrations.
Roxana Vasile, 05.01.2022, 13:50
For two years, the Romanian tourism industry has been operating with interruptions, and the efforts for recovery have been thwarted by the anti-Covid measures. Restrictions on leaving or entering the country, the obligatory quarantine upon reaching the destination or returning home, the introduction of “green certificates” and the facilities granted only to vaccinated people or the constant change of the traffic light system have generated a wave of travel cancellations, refunds and litigation.
Due to restrictions, Romanians chose the tourist destinations of Romania. But in 2021, holiday vouchers were canceled, although they largely ensure the survival and development of the sector, which has lost more than 30% of its workforce in 18 months. Even so, last year, revenues increased compared to the first year of the pandemic, although they did not reach the level of 2019. On Easter and May 1, the number of tourists in Romania’s hotels and guesthouses was double compared to a normal year.
Tourist destinations from all over the country were chosen, especially rural guesthouses, mountain and spa resorts, as well as the Danube Delta. The star of the summer season was, by far, the Black Sea Coast. On the New Years Eve, Romanians spent 45 million Euros on foreign destinations and 30 million Euros on domestic ones — show data from the National Association of Travel Agencies in Romania. “2022 New Years Eve celebrations do not compare with the last normal New Years Eve celebrations, in 2020, but considerable growth was reported as compared to the ones in 2021” – said Traian Bădulescu, the spokesman of the National Association of Travel Agencies in Romania.
According to him, with the announced relaxation of restrictions on December 7, reservations for the New Year’s Eve across Romania increased by 30%. Among the Romanians’ favorite destinations abroad we can mention Egypt, Dubai, Zanzibar, the Dominican Republic, the Maldives, Sri Lanka, Kenya, Mexico and Costa Rica. It was obvious that people wanted to travel where there were less restrictions, especially to green destinations. Consequently, the Western European countries were less popular this time.
For 2022, the new Liberal- Social Democratic coalition, which has been governing the country since the end of last year, decided to grant holiday vouchers again, as the employer’s associations forming the Alliance for Tourism even recommended a law on granting holiday vouchers for a period of at least 5 years.
These days, the Romanian Association of Spas and Spa Resorts has proposed to the Executive to grant health vouchers for medical recovery in the 34 existing spa resorts nationwide. According to the president of the Association, Gheorghe Paciu, it would be very important that the medical recovery, so necessary in the current context of the pandemic, should be done in spas, and Romanians should use the national resources of recovery, the therapeutic, thermal waters and mud, which are famous internationally. (LS)
