Up to 7 pct more foreigners to choose Romania’s rural tourism in 2013 says ANTREC

The number of Romanians opting for rural tourism in 2013 should grow by 15 percent y-o-y while that of foreigners coming to Romania for this type of tourism is expected increase by between 5 to 7 percent, according to the National Association for Rural, Ecological and Cultural Tourism (ANTREC). This will happen in the context of an overall growth of Romania’s domestic tourism this year, according to the same source.

Most of the foreign tourists who buy accommodation in local rural guesthouses come from neighboring countries such as Hungary as well as Germany, France (especially individual tourists), Israel but also Japan (groups).

The most popular Romanian regions for rural tourism are Brasov (Bran-Moieciu, Fundata, Rasnov, Cristian), Bucovina, Maramures and Marginimea Sibiului. More recently, the northern part of the region of Oltenia has grown in popularity thanks to the opening of high-end guest-houses such as Conacul lui Maldar and Casa Cartianu as well as the region of Neamt which last year was the host of the European Congress for Rural Tourism.

On March 15, ANTREC announced the winners of the Golden Daisy Awards (for Romanian guesthouses, daisies are the equivalent of stars in the general classification system), a contest which awards local guesthouses for their activity. This year, the grand award went to the Cheile Gradistei Complex in Moeciu, Brasov county.

Maria Stoian, the founding president of ANTREC says each year it is becoming increasing hard to distinguish between the nominees to a overall increase in the quality and creativity of local guesthouses. “Romania is among the European countries with a developed rural tourism such as France, Austria, Italy and Switzerland,” said Stoian.