The Romanian Tourism Fair, which has reached its 38th edition this year, is a good opportunity for Romania to improve the still shabby image it has in this field. Participating are exhibitors from 12 countries: promotion associations, insurance and travel agencies, as well as representatives of several Romanian county councils, which are thus trying to promote their own, local tourism offers. The city of Sibiu, for instance, has a stand devoted to gastronomy, as two years from now it will be declared a European Gastronomic Area. In all, some 200 tour operators and travel agencies are taking part in this edition of the fair, which stays open until Sunday. Visitors are welcomed with special offers and discounts. Here is Marius Berca, representing one of the operators attending the fair, with more details for Radio Romania:<\/p>\n
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\u201cFor those who come to the fair and book a vacation, the down payment is only 25 Euro. Also, until January 31st they can pay up to 30% of the difference. There are many first minute offers that we have, and the fact that they can pay in installments is clearly an advantage for all potential tourists. Besides the well-known, traditional destinations, people have started to get interested, again, in exotic destinations. What is for certain is that, at the fair, they will benefit from lots of discounts and surprises.\u201d<\/p>\n
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The fact that, although extremely rich, Romania\u2019s tourist potential has been poorly capitalized on, is no surprise to anybody and has been for long now high on the agenda of public debate. The president of the National Travel Agencies\u2019 Association Alin Burcea admits that, in terms of foreign tourists traveling to Romania, the situation is still bad, although in statistics the situation has improved, with a growth rate of 10-15% every year.<\/p>\n
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Romania can boast a wide range of beautiful tourist destinations, from the resorts on the Black Sea Coast, the ski slopes in the Carpathians, to the unique Danube Delta, the Bucovina monasteries, which are part of the UNESCO heritage, or the fortified towns and churches in Transylvania. Also popular are the pieces of oriental architecture in the region of Dobrogea, in the south east, the royal palace in Sinaia or the giant Parliament Palace in Bucharest. Besides that, Romania is still a cheap destination, and prices are affordable for many categories of tourists.<\/p>\n
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Another important thing is that this is a very safe country, with a very low criminality rate and with an almost clean record in terms of aggression against tourists. However, there is also a downside, as the road infrastructure is quite bad, with just a few hundreds of kilometers of motorway, many old hotels and sometimes poor services, which are discouraging to many western tourists. Therefore, revenues from tourism in Romania are still lower than in Hungary or even Bulgaria, although they are smaller countries, with a lower tourist potential. (Translated by M. Ignatescu<\/em>)<\/p>\n
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