Romania welcomed 231,600 foreign tourists in October this year, 18.4% more than in the same month of 2015. This was the highest growth rate in eight months, according to data from the National Statistics Institute (INS).

The number of European tourists who visited Romania went up by 19% while the number of EU tourists increased by 22% year-on-year. The number of tourists from Asia also went up by 26%. The official statistics take into account the reported number of tourists who checked into registered accomodation units in Romania.

Germans, Israeli, and Italians were the most numerous visitors in Romania in October. The number of German tourists increased by almost a quarter (24.2%) to over 27,000, the number of Israeli tourists went up by 34.5%, to 23,400, and the number of Italians grew by 15.6%, to 21,900.

The number of British tourists also increased by 28%, to over 14,000, while the number of Austrians visiting Romania went up by 83% compared to October 2015, to over 8,100.

The number of Dutch and Belgian tourists also went up by more than a third. From outside Europe, the number of Chinese tourists increased by 44%, to 2,800, and the number of Canadians went up by 53%, to 2,700. The Americans remain the most numerous tourists from outside Europe, with more than 14,000 tourists from the U.S. visiting Romania in October, up 10% over last year.

By comparison, the number of Romanian tourists who checked in local hotels and guest houses in October was only 5.5% higher than last year, at close to 650,000. The total number of tourists in Romania went up by 8.6% year-on-year in October, to 880,800.

In the first ten months of 2016, the total number of tourists increased by 10.9% year-on-year, to some 9.44 million. Most of them were Romanians (77.1%), and the rest were foreign tourists (22.9%). The number of foreign tourists went up by 10.8% compared to the first ten months of 2015, reaching 2.16 million).

By countries, most foreigners came from Germany – some 250,000, followed by Israel – around 217,000, Italy – over 198,000, France – some 126,000, Hungary – 125,170, UK – 123,000, and the US – over 121,000.

Five times more foreign tourists visit Bulgaria than Romania this summer

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