No institution in Romania can say exactly how many foreign tourists come to the country, and the real number could be higher than the one presented in the public space, tourism minister Mircea Titus Dobre said at local TV station Digi24.

“No one in Romania can currently say how many foreigners came to our country. No one. No state institution,” the minister said.

“The INS (e.n. the National Statistics Institute) data is based on what, that some people enter at the custom points, and then it subtracts the number of those leaving on the other side? That’s not correct. There are more visitors,” he added.

According to Dobre, this issue is to be regulated in a year or two, and the country will have a real database on the number of foreign tourists who visit Romania.

INS data showed that 2.47 million foreign tourists came to Romania last year, up 10.6% year-on-year, and most of them came from Europe, Asia, and North America. INS's data reflects the number of tourists who check into local accomodation units such as hotels and guesthouses, but does not include informal tourism, such as people staying with friends, those renting apartments or those using travel platforms such as Airbnb.

Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com