The Foreigners Hardly Find Vacations in Romania

The foreign tourists, who wish to travel to Romania, confront with difficulties when it comes to all included trips to Romania. On the most popular French or German websites the vacation offers having Romania as destination are missing or hard to find, while Bulgaria appears in the promotional offers.

The foreigners that wish to spend their vacation in Romania have to have some time dedicated to the finding of the touristy offers from here. For example, on the well-known French touristy sites the all included vacations to Romania are quite an exception. The seaside and the mountain lovers that prefer Romania have to look for offers directly in the websites of the Romanian touristy companies from the respective states or in the sites of the great tour-operators.

FRANCE. The French tourist has some work to do before finding a vacation to Romania with al included package. On the www.partirpascher.fr website, which offers all included vacations, Romania doesn’t exist. In exchange, Bulgaria is amongst the cheap destinations, with one week long holidays costing from 350 euros to 590 euros. The price includes three star hotel accommodation, breakfast and dinner, air transportation and the transfer to the hotel. Another French website, very visited in France that offers all included vacations is http://espot.promovacances.com. Romania isn’t a part of these sites offers also, but the tourist can easily find offers for trips and tours in Bulgaria, Croatia, Ukraine, Latvia or Lithuania. An all included tour of Romania we can find at www.fr.lastminute.com. The price of a seven day tour with six accommodation nights, breakfast, lunch and dinner is 882 euros. For this money the tourist gets to see Bucharest, Curtea de Arges, Sighisoara, the monasteries in Bucovina, Piatra-Neamt and Brasov.

GERMANY. The Germans that want to spend a week in Romania and that don’t want to go to the tourism agencies can look for offers on the website of the tour-operator TUI, www.tui.de. Romania is on the list of the zones "sun guaranteed", with offers in the seaside resorts Neptun, Eforie Nord and Mamaia. For a week on the Romanian seaside, in a four star hotel from Eforie Nord or Mamaia, a couple must pay from 1,150 euros (accommodation and breakfast) to 1,400 euros (accommodation, breakfast and dinner) in the first half of August.

In the promotional offers for the seaside category, which appears on the start page of the site, Romania isn’t included. The list of the most advantageous vacation at the seaside includes Bulgaria, Greece, Spain, Turkey or Tunisia. The price of a seven days stay in Bulgaria in a three star hotel, with breakfast and dinner could reach 1,100 euros in August. A couple that wishes to spend a week in Bulgaria in a five star hotel all included will pay around 1,800 euros, air transportation included.

Bulgaria is one of this summer’s destinations, being intensely promoted on another German website, where Romanian in the "last minute" list of offers, by searching Croatia-Bulgaria. On www.reise.de the first offer is a seven day trip to Bulgaria, that costs 459 euros, in a four star hotel. However there are German websites where Romania is promoted, like www.expedia.de or www.opodo.de. At these addresses our country isn’t directly included on the destinations list, but it appears if the user searches for Croatia-Bulgaria. Here the offer is better, including three and four star hotels from approximately all the resorts on the Romanian seaside. A seven day vacation, in a three star hotel, costs between 370 and 580 euros per person, depending on the resort and the services chosen by the tourist.

PRIVATE. The offers that appear on the European touristy websites belong to the tour-operators which sell different destinations. The decision about showing or not the Romanian offers depends on them and on the contracts that they have with the Romanian touristy associations. There are also websites created by private owners, which present touristy information about Romania (for example, www.bikeromania.de, www.hdd.dds.nl - Paspoort Roemenie).

PROMOTION

The National Authority for Tourism (NAT) budget for the touristy promotion of Romania is 132.5 billion lei. The image, the offers and the touristy potential of our country are promoted through the information bureaus of Romania from other states. Such bureaus are in Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Great Britain, Greece, Holland, Israel, Italy, The Republic of Moldova, Russia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey and U.S.A. The tourist can access the addresses of these bureaus or could go directly to the representatives to get information about Romania and about the vacation offers in our country. According to NAT, Romania is promoted by its participation in the international fairs, the organizing of some introducing circuits of our country for foreign tour operators and journalists, advertising campaigns, promoting materials, the making of touristy films and photo-reports. Other activities through which the Romanian tourism is promoted are the appearance of touristy guides, actions of the Romanian diplomatic representations or of the different investors or associations. The activities which promote Romania also exist in the states in which there are no Romanian touristy bureaus. A good example for this is the organizing of some Romanian gastronomic weeks in Slovakia.