Romania Is Last in EU by Incoming Foreign Tourist Number

Romania is the last in the European Union by the total nights foreign tourists spend at Romanian tourist accommodation in 2022. This is the latest data published by the Eurostat to observe World Tourism Day, celebrated every year on September 27.

While the EU average is 43%, Romania stands last at 14%. Poland is another Eastern country to suffer from this perspective, and some say this is because of the proximity of the war in Ukraine.

Remarkably, Romania’s neighbours, such as Bulgaria and Hungary, are way ahead on 11th and 16th respectively. This is because both countries know how to promote their tourism, and Europeans and tourists from outside the EU have heard or read about the attractions of these two destinations.

In absolute terms, the highest numbers of international (EU and non-EU countries) tourism nights were recorded in Spain (270 million nights) and Italy (201 million nights), jointly accounting for 40% of all international tourism nights spent at accommodation establishments in the EU.

While a strong attractiveness for foreign tourists boosts a country’s economy and contributes to a better mutual understanding of the country’s people and culture, a high foreign dependency can also make a destination more vulnerable in case of an external shock, such as natural disasters or pandemics affecting international mobility.

Eurostat

Meanwhile, EU domestic travellers (travelling within their own country of residence) accounted for 57% of all nights spent in EU tourist accommodations in 2022. 

Romania’s tourism promotion fails big time. The image of those six Romanian bureaucrats representing Romania at the New York International Tourism Fair in April 2022, standing in front of some printed images of the country clipped to the black canvas behind them, is enough to understand who promotes the country and why the mediocre results.

In 2022, when Romania brought only around 600,000 international tourists the whole year, Bulgaria was only visited by 800,000 foreign tourists in October. This is the difference, and Romania could fill in a good part of its deficit by attracting tourists to the country.

The mediocre bureaucrats pretending to work inside the Ministry of Economy and Tourism walls bring mediocre results. And that’s all you need to know about the reasons why Romania stands last in the EU and, despite having lots of attractions, is unable to attract foreign tourists.