Foreign tourists seem less attracted to Romania: the number of visitors from abroad down 1.2 pct y/y in July

The number of foreign tourists in Romania declined by 1.2 percent year-on-year in July, the first decrease in years, to 317,400, due mainly to lower interest of Asian and European tourists, according to the National Institute of Statistics (INS).

In July, the number of foreign tourists from Europe declined by 0.9 percent compared with July 2017, to 234,000, while the number of Asian tourists decreased by 6.9 percent, to 45,700. The number of American tourists declined by 1.7 percent, to 23,300.

Despite de decline registered in July, the number of visitors from abroad in Romania rose by 4.3 percent in the first seven months of this year compared with the same period from 2017, to 1.59 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-July 2018, the foreign tourists in Romania came mainly from Europe (1.18 million, +3.5 percent y/y), followed by Asia (227.000, +1.7 percent), North America (108,300, +5.6 percent), South America (13,300, +8.1 percent) and Africa (11,800, +4.4 percent).

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By countries, the main sources of foreign tourists in Romania this year are Germany (182,799 tourists in January-July), Israel (153,346), Italy (133,603), France (98,196) and Hungary (95,340).

The number of Romanian tourists rose by 3.6 percent in the first seven months of 2018, to 5.27 million.

The overnight stays, a key index for the tourism sector, increased by 2.6 percent year-on-year in the first seven months, to 14.62 million.