Romania registered a 15.9 percent increase in tourist overnight stay in 2015, the highest among member states of the EU, according to data released by Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union.
Our country was followed by Slovakia (11.5 percent), the Czech Republic (10.3 percent), Croatia (7.9 percent), Slovenia (7.5 percent) and Poland (6.9 percent). In contrast, the largest fall was recorded in Lithuania (7.4 percent), followed at a distance by Latvia (1.3 percent) and Bulgaria (1.1 percent).
Overnight stay in hotels across Romania increased both for non-residents (18.3 percent) and residents (15.3 percent), once more the highest levels registered across the bloc. In terms of nights spent by non-residents, Slovakia (12.8 percent) and Sweden (9.6 percent) followed, while the Czech Republic reported a (15.0 percent) rise in residents’ night stay.
However, Romania did not fare so well when it comes to the total number of tourists that chose it as a destination, holding a 19 percent share of tourism nights by non-residents. Our country placed last, along with Poland which holds a similar share.
At the other end of the scale there were Malta (96 percent), Cyprus (94 percent), Croatia (92 percent), Greece (79 percent) and Austria (71 percent).
In 2015, the number of overnight stays in tourist accommodation establishments in the EU is expected to have reached a new record level of around 2.8 billion nights, up by 3.2 percent compared to 2014. Spain (421 million nights, up 4.3 percent over 2014) reinforced its top position in terms of tourism nights, ahead of France (413 million, up 2.8 percent), Italy (385 million, up 1.8 percent) and Germany (379 million, up 3.3 percent).
Natalia Martian