Weekend tourism, a holidays' bonus, most Romanians choose to spend in nationwide destinations

Most of the Romanians choose to travel in weekend to national destinations, mainly to visit as many places as possible and due to the lack of time, and not only because of financial reasons, a tourism consultant Traian Badulescu told AGERPRES.

"Many tourists choose a main holiday abroad after which they prefer to spend several weekends in Romania. In addition, the legal holidays allow the tourists to spend long weekends in the country, and here we should remind the Easter, the Pentecost, the 1st of June or the Natiional Day 1st of December. The weekend tourism is a holidays' bonus, specifically a bonus to the classic 5-10 nights' holiday," Traian Badulescu said.

The destinations depend on the season, the tourists choosing the Black Sea coast in summer or the mountain resorts or rural tourism areas. In the spring, the Romanians choose to spend their long weekends to the mountain resorts, which enjoy the same success in the winter, too.

The city breaks in Romania's touristic places are also preferred in the summer, since the hotel tariffs are a bit lower, with an important role added by the low-cost flights. A growing demand is recorded for the northwestern city of Cluj-Napoca, seconded by central Sibiu, western Timisoara or northeastern Iasi.

Traian Badulescu said that Bucharest ranks first in a top of tourist incoming in 2017, according to the National Statistics Institute the Romanian capital having been visited last year by over 1.2 million of foreign tourists, almost half of the foreign visitors per annum (in 2017, Romania hosted 2.76 million foreign tourists), and over 800,000 Romanian ones.
Also the INS data say that in 2017 the Bucharest hostels hosted over 40,000 foreign tourists, most of them young backpackers in city-break, low-cost type.

"In the last 3-4 years, the leisure tourists' weight coming to Bucharest or at least for one-night stay in the Romanian Capital, both Romanians and foreign is on a rise. Sibiu is noted as the first international city of Romania because in 2007 it used to be Cultural Capital of Europe. The County of Sibiu was visited last year by 163,940 foreign tourists of whom almost half (80,000) preferred a city-break in the city of Sibiu. The central city of Sibiu has a major edge with its eventful calendar, a good accomodation infrastructure: hotels, guest houses, villas for all pockets," Traian Badulescu added.

Another weekend holidays' landmark is the central city of Brasov who last year received 201,157 foreign tourists, of whom most have chosen the Bran-Moieciu rural tourism, the Predeal and Poiana Brasov resorts. .

"Cluj-Napoca, the northwestern city that has become famous due to the Untold or Electric Castle festivals, alongside other cultural and sport events, was visited in 2017 by 135,299 foreign guests, coming for either such events or businesses. Another tourist destination has become the western city of Timisoara, that benefits of an international airport and an edge it has to take advantage from: in 2021 will be Cultural Capital of Europe," added Badulescu.

However, it looks that Oradea is the last 2-3 years' revelation, with its being located at the western border, neighbouring Hungary, and a modern airport upgraded lately and its vicinity to the Baile Felix spa resort, the Oradea Fortress, and the Aquaparc Nymphea, the most complex, up-to-the-minute leisure project," Badulescu said.AGERPRES(RO - author: Carmen Marinescu, editor: Nicoleta Gherasi; EN - author, editor: Maria Voican)