Romania becomes less attractive to foreign tourists from all over the world following diaspora protest

The number of foreign tourists in Romania declined in August for the second month in a row, by 2.8 percent year-on-year to 328,500, on lower interest of tourists from all over the world, according to the National Institute of Statistics (INS).

In August, the number of foreign tourists from Europe declined by 0.5 percent compared with August 2017, to 248,300, while the number of Asian tourists decreased by 3.2 percent, to 50,800.

The number of American tourists declined by 9.6 percent to 18,800.

This decline could be associated with images of brutal intervention of local gendarmes against protesters in Bucharest on August 10, during the Diaspora protest against the Romanian government.

Many television channels from all over the world have showed images of violence. Three Israeli tourists were taken out of a cab and beaten by Gendarmes during Bucharest protests and sued the Romanian Gendarmerie. The incidents were filmed and posted on Facebook.

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Despite de decline registered in July and August, the number of visitors from abroad in Romania rose by 3 percent in the first eight months of this year compared with the same period from 2017, to 1.92 million.

In 2017, the number of foreign tourists in Romania has reached a record-level of 2.75 million, up 11.3 percent compared with 2016.

In January-August 2018, the foreign tourists in Romania came mainly from Europe (1.43 million, +2.8 percent y/y), followed by Asia (277,800, +0.8 percent), North America (127,100, +3 percent), South America (15,600, +3.3 percent) and Africa (13,300, +3.9 percent).

By countries, the main sources of foreign tourists in Romania this year are Germany (224,628 tourists in January-August), Israel (192,179), Italy (162,565), Hungary (116,737) and France (115,708).

The number of Romanian tourists rose by 5.4 percent in the first eight months of 2018, to 6.79 million.

The overnight stays, a key index for the tourism sector, increased by 4.2 percent year-on-year in the first eight months, to 19.57 million.