Foreign tourists spent over EUR 1 billion in 2013

1.71 million tourists visited Romania in 2013 and spent EUR 1.07 billion (RON 4.79 billion) in the country, most of which was for accommodation, according to data from released by the National Statistics Institute on Monday.

The biggest share of tourist came from Germany (228,00o) followed by Italians (181,000) and French (118,000).

More then half of the foreigners that visited Romania last year came for business, attending congresses, conferences, training, exhibitions (58 percent of total) and they spent approximately EUR 660 million.

“The second reason for spending time in Romania were private trips (42 percent of non-resident tourists), their expenses representing 33.6 percent of the total (EUR 33o million). Private trips include holidays, shopping, sports and cultural events, visits, medical treatment, pilgrimages, transit and other activities”, according to the INS.

Tourists who came for business left some EUR 58 million in Romania during their shopping sprees, half of which on food and beverages, and around a third on souvenirs – or some EUR 20 million. Foreigners spent some EUR 103 million in restaurants and bars, statistics reveal.

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The majority of tourists flew to Romania (74.4 percent), a third organized their trip via tourism agencies, and a third by themselves.

Eurostat data shows that although the number of checkins increased by 5.1 percent last year, the Romanian tourism industry is still far behind its neighbors, with less than 1 in 5 checkins being attributed to a foreign tourist. Foreigners account for 3.5 million checkins in 2013, one of the lowest levels in Europe, about 4 times less than Hungary or Bulgaria.