Romania’s incoming tourism, i.e. receiving foreign tourists, is in a survival phase, marked by stagnation and lack of a national strategic vision, according to Ovidiu Tudor, president of the Incoming Romania Association (AIR). Without the urgent establishment of a Destination Management Organization (DMO) at national level, an adequate promotion budget and fiscal predictability, the sector cannot overcome its current state and remains uncompetitive on the European market, generating a considerable deficit in the balance of payments.
According to aggregated industry data, Romania recorded 2.4 million foreign tourists last year, down from 2.7 million in 2019. An analysis of their structure shows a major reliance on the business, events and conferences segment, which accounts for 70% of the total. Vacation (leisure) tourism attracts only 30% of visitors, and of this segment, less than a third (about 9% of all foreign tourists) arrive in the country through travel agencies. This poor performance is directly reflected in the balance of payments, where tourism services (incoming versus outgoing) generate an annual deficit estimated by the National Bank at between €2.7 and €3.5 billion.
The main causes identified are the lack of a coherent national strategy and chronic under-funding of external promotion. The allocated annual budget of between €1.5 and €2.5 million is considered to be insufficient, comparable to the marketing budget of a single large company in another sector. This underfunding leads to a poor presence at international fairs and an inability to promote high added value segments such as luxury tourism, ecotourism or niche tourism. Ovidiu Tudor points out that the “selling by itself” model, based on Westerners’ curiosity to discover the “poorer relatives in the East”, has exhausted its resources and now requires active and professional promotion.
The central solution proposed by the industry is the establishment of a national MDG, a public-private organization, independent from political fluctuations, exclusively dedicated to Romania’s external promotion. Such an entity, similar to the inter-war NTO, would require a stable multi-year budget in order to be able to run strategic campaigns in target markets. One source of funding could be a tourism tax of €1 per visitor, which, at the total level of 30 million tourists (Romanian and foreign) in 2019, could generate a budget of up to €30 million. The establishment of this NTO, estimated as possible in the next two years, is considered essential for a “restart” of Romanian tourism. Until then, initiatives such as a possible Transylvania regional WCO, formed from the bottom up by local associations, could take over some of the efforts, including in attracting new airlines.
In the short term, the outlook remains bleak, with the sector dominated by a struggle for survival. Fiscal uncertainty, particularly related to a possible VAT increase in the HORECA sector (currently at 11%), is hampering the setting of tariffs for 2026 and contracting with external partners. Without predictability and supportive public policies, an increase in the number of foreign tourists is unlikely, and the targets circulated in the public arena, such as 10 million foreign visitors or a 10% contribution to GDP, remain distant goals. The focus needs to shift from selling basic services to creating and promoting experiences and stories, a successful model being the Via Transilvanica project.