ANAT official: Romania's foreign visitors at 2.5 ml a year, of whom just 800,000 holidaymakers

The number of foreign visitors to Romania is 2.5 million a year of whom 1.7 million come on business trips and just 800,000 are tourists and holidaymakers, vice-president of Romania's National Association of Travel Agencies (ANAT) Alin Burcea told the conference "Connecting Europe through Innovation" on Thursday.

Citing numbers, Burcea said that of the yearly total of 2.5 million visitors to Romania, between 1.5 and 1.7 are here on corporate trips and for business; the ANAT official also deplored the gap between electioneering promises that have been flaunting potential tourism and economy growth for 28 years now and the lackluster reality. "Compared to France's 80 million visitors, we have 2.5 million, I let you draw the conclusion for yourselves," Burcea said, stressing that throughout this time things have not moved from the stage of potentiality and that of the existing 2,400 travel agencies only 40 effectively bring tourists to Romania. 

Putting the finger on other sore spots, the ANAT vice-president said that Romania is unable to spend the promotional budget as only 1.8 million out of 5.5 million euro have been used last year, and that its hotel resource is lacking, requiring relevant investment.