The number of foreign tourists who visited Romania increased by 90pct in the first nine months of the year, while the number of Romanian tourists increased by 9pct, Entrepreneurship and Tourism Minister Daniel Cadariu stated on Thursday, at the opening of Romania’s Tourism Fair (TTR), according to Agerpres.

„For the first nine months, according to the data of the National Institute of Statistics (INS), the main indicator which reflects the tourist activity of Romania – and I mean the number of tourists – looks very good. Compared to the value of the indicator from 2021, we have a 16pct increase in the number of tourists. Approximately 9pct for Romanian tourists and an increase of approximately 90pct in the number of foreign tourists. I say that is a confirmation of the sustained joint effort between the authorities, operators and the ministry to support the tourist activity of Romania,” the relevant Minister stated.

Cadariu also talked about the support programmes for the operators in this sector.

„In respect to the Horeca 2 programme, the Emergency Ordinance was passed, we did our job and we sent to the Finance Ministry the industry’s request of 750 million EUR, however, the other day, we focused, together with representatives of the Ministry of European Funds and we found the possibility for an amount of 300 million EUR to come from European money, from that 10pct buffer of the Cohesion Fund which can be used for Ukraine temporary framework,” the Government official said.

Other programmes are close to be launched, he added.

„We are in the final process of implementing two other programmes to support tourism. We have prepared the memorandum and we will submit it to the Government meeting in the coming weeks regarding that programme to stimulate the incoming, with that bonus of 40 EUR for the agencies which bring foreign tourists to Romania for a minimum stay of four nights, and we have also prepared that programme to support private operators of spa resorts with grants of up to 200,000 EUR, representing a maximum of 50pct of the investment value,” Cadariu said.

On Tuesday, the Minister attended the opening of the autumn edition of Romania’s Tourism Fair, which takes place between 10 and 13 November 2022.

The event takes place in the pavilion B1 of the Romexpo Exhibition Center and registers a degree of internationalization of 27 percent, with representatives from nine countries attending the fair, namely: Bulgaria, Canada, Egypt, Israel, Japan, Maldives, Palestine, Romania and Turkey.

Agerpres