Number of foreign Danube Delta visitors plunges more than 20 pct in 2019

The total number of travelers to the Danube Delta last year was almost in line with that of 2018, but the downward trend in foreign tourist arrivals continued, shows data of the Danube Delta Tourist Destination Management Association (AMDTDD). AMDTDD president Catalin Tibuleac told AGERPRES on Thursday that the number of foreign Delta visitors was 20,501 down from 25,722 registered in 2018 (as per the National Institute of Statistics). "This decrease is the result of our incapacity to support quality tourism with all its components in the Delta. I am referring also to tourist guides who, unfortunately, don't always know an international language, to transport on the Danube, and certain services," said Tibuleac. He added that foreign tourists do not come to an area fraught with unpredictability, and expressed hope that in 2020 the Delta will partially make a comeback from the downturn in foreign tourism. The tour operators have requested a change in taxation to adjust to the Delta season that spans only nine months, the modification of the fishing ban period, and the change of the legislation so that they be allowed to buy fish directly from fishermen. In 2018, the management of the Danube Delta Biosphere Reserve Administration pointed to the considerable decline in the number of foreign Delta visitors from almost 37,000 in 2015 to 22,000 in 2016 and just 18,100 in 2017. AGERPRES (RO - author: Luisiana Bigea, editor: Marius Fratila; EN - author: Simona Klodnischi, editor: Simona Iacob)

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