Around 100,000 foreigners – or 15 percent of those who stay in Bucharest hotels every year come to Romania to see the Romanian women they usually met abroad, according to Romania's Tourism Employers Federation.

The average stay in Bucharest for foreigners who come to meet their Romanian lady friends is of 1.6 nights, and the average daily spend is of EUR 150 to EUR 175. This means the total spend attracted in Bucharest from them alone is of EUR 25 to EUR 30 million a year. Foreigners usually meet Romanian women when they work abroad or via the Internet.

Around 1.2 million people stayed in Bucharest hotels last year, 650,000 of which were foreigners, a bit more than in 2010. Most of the foreigners coming to Bucharest are from  Europe, and the biggest group is made of Italians - some 70,000 people. Italy is one of the main destination for Romanians who wish to emigrate. Americans came second, with a group of 56,000 people coming to Bucharest in 2011, and British, third, with 52,700 people. There were 49,700 French people arriving in Bucharest in 2011, 46,300 Israeli, 24,800 Spanish and 24,400 Austrians. Bucharest also hosted 6,800 Japanese tourists, 6,400 Indians and 4,600 Chinese.

“French, American and British usually stay at international brand hotels. The rest, especially Italians and Spanish, are curious to see the rest of the country and do not care about the hotel brand that much. Foreigners generally stay at four star or better hotels,” said Mohammad Murad, president of the Romania's Tourism Employers Federation and owner of the Phoenicia hotel chain.

editor@romania-insider.com