Two of the largest travel groups in the world, TUI and ITS could stop bringing tourists to Romania due to dissatisfaction with the lack of promotion on the German market and Romania's image abroad deteriorating lately due to the political situation, according to Mediafax newswire.

"The two groups plan to exit because a number of promises made ​​by the Tourism Ministry in recent years have not been honored. Among others, investments of EUR 3 million to promote Romania in Germany  in the next two years were promised and nothing has been done, " said an unnamed tourism source, quoted by Mediafax.

The political situation in Romania is affecting the image of the country and the German tour operators are not too pleased about it. The state secretary Cristian Barhalescu went to Berlin to convince them to stay in Romania.

In 2009, the Tourism Ministry signed a contract with the tour operator TUI to return in 2010 to Romania. In 2006 the German group stopped bringing tourists to Romania and removed Romanian offers from its brochures, as it was dissatisfied with housing, high prices charged by hotels, noise and lack of cleanliness in the villages.

ITS has been operating on the Romanian market for several years. After 2009, following discussions with officials of the Tourism Ministry, travel company representatives said they were dissatisfied with the quality and prices on the Romanian seaside.

Ioana Toader, ioana.toader@romania-insider.com