The photo describes, I think, the best, the situation in which Romanian tourism finds itself. A beautiful girl who gives Romania another chance, but who, when she goes to the beach, is surrounded by trash, packaging and plastic bags. In vain are there a few investors at the sea and in the mountains who waste their nights trying to convince their compatriots and foreign tourists that Romania has something to brag about, if, even after the multiple cold showers they have received, the heads of tourism and local authorities do not admit that they have a problem and do not try to find solutions. Together!
The cold shower of official figures issued by Statistics
The Ministry of Tourism has always tried in every way to sweeten the reality that we, those who live and work by the sea, have observed. August 2022, the busiest and most expensive month of the season, did not compare to 2021. The National Institute of Statistics has published the official data for August 2022, and the reality is harsh. I hope that Minister Cadariu also receives these data on the map so that it does not happen again as in the article below.
Romania is always surprising! The Minister of Tourism announces an increase in the number of foreign visitors. In the real world, the data shows a decline.
That's how they like to steal their own hats! It was my first reaction when I...
Overnight stays fell by almost 15%
The National Institute of Statistics has two indicators – arrivals and overnight stays. Arrivals are recorded per tourist, and overnight stays represent the number of nights spent by the tourist in the chosen accommodation unit. The first indicator shows that the number of arrivals decreased by 7.9% in August 2022, compared to the same month of 2021. More serious is the reduction in the number of nights spent on the seaside . Here, the minus percentage is close to 15%. The data is only for Constanța County.
Half of the foreign tourists have disappeared
In terms of foreign tourists, the collapse is serious. The arrivals of foreign tourists in Constanța county decreased by 46,8%, and the number of nights spent by them in our county decreased by 44,8%.
Arrivals recorded in tourist reception structures in August 2022 amounted to 453,6 thousand people, 7,9% less than in August 2021. Constanța County recorded the most tourist arrivals compared to the other counties, in August 2022, 3,3 times more than in Bucharest and 3,2 times more than in Brașov County. At the level of country of residence of foreign tourists, the first 2 countries from which foreign tourists arrived in Constanța County, in August 2022 were Germany and the United States of America . The overnight stays recorded in tourist reception structures, in August 2022 were 1581,3 thousand, 14,9% less than those recorded in August 2021.
Holiday apartments are starting to appear in the statistics
The average length of stay in August 2022 was 3,49 days for Romanian tourists and 3,19 days for foreign tourists. The net utilization index of accommodation places in August 2022 was 60,2%, for all tourist accommodation structures, down 10,3 percentage points compared to August 2021.
Regarding the distribution of tourist arrivals by types of tourist accommodation structures, there were decreases in almost all types of structures. An increase in the number of arrivals and overnight stays for campsites alone can be seen, by 14,0% and 14,7% respectively in August 2022 compared to August 2021. Arrivals in apartments and rooms for rent recorded in August 2022 totaled 94,0 thousand people, up by 1,4% compared to August 2021. Of the total number of arrivals, in August 2022, the arrivals of Romanian tourists in apartments and rooms for rent represented 99,6%, and the arrivals foreign tourists 0,4%.
The overnight stays registered in apartments and rooms for rent in August 2022 totaled 310,9 thousand, 12,5% less than those registered in August 2021. From the total number of overnight stays, in August 2022, the overnight stays of Romanian tourists represented 99,6% while overnight stays by foreign tourists accounted for 0,4%.
