The Minister of Tourism, Bogdan Trif, promised that Romania will be included at the latest next year in the Dertour catalogs, from which it was removed this year, and that he will try to convince the other major German tour operators to promote Romanian tourism offers in their printed catalogs again.
Radu Colfescu, the general manager of Dertour Romania, specified that Romanian seaside offers were considered uncompetitive by Dertour, giving as an example a 5-star hotel with breakfast, which has a rate 20% higher than that of a similar hotel on the Bulgarian coast, but with an all-inclusive regime.
Tour operator representatives say, however, that it wasn’t necessarily the Romanian offers that removed Romania from the German tour operators’ catalogs, but the fact that the Ministry of Tourism no longer participated with money in their publication, after contributing several tens of thousands of euros to each catalog until a few years ago.
Asked if he would pay for Romania’s reappearance in these catalogs, the Minister of Tourism avoided answering directly, but let it be understood, saying that Romania will contribute to the promotion of Romanian offers on the German market.
Trif believes that the abolition of external tourism offices by his predecessor Mircea Dobre also contributed to the poor promotion of our country on the foreign market and stated that by the end of this year all external promotion offices, closed in 2017, will be reopened.
Also by the end of 2018, Romania will have an integrated tourism strategy, in which the private sector will also be involved, Minister Trif promised.
The minister specified that from the 21 million RON budget initially granted for the promotion of Romanian tourism, the Ministry of Tourism spent only 8 million RON last year, losing the rest of the money at the budget rectification, and for this reason, this year the institution received a much smaller budget than in 2017, of approximately 13 million RON.
The minister promises, however, that he will spend the entire amount on promotion, and not just on tourism fairs, but also on info trips for foreign journalists, promotion clips in foreign media, and online advertisements.
At the same time, the minister also stated that the Tourism Law will be finalized in a few months.
Source: Capital
Frequently Asked Questions
Why was Romania removed from the Dertour catalogs?
The main reasons were the lack of price competitiveness compared to Bulgaria and the cessation of funding from the Ministry of Tourism for catalog publication.
What external promotion measures are planned?
The Ministry intends to reopen all external tourism offices, organize info trips for journalists, and run campaigns in foreign media and online.
What is the promotion budget for this year?
The budget allocated for tourism promotion this year is approximately 13 million RON, after only 8 million RON was spent last year.