The Romanian minister of tourism, Daniel Cadariu, announced on July 12 speaking for the Talk News show on Profit News TV, that he would hire an advertising company that in turn will work with local and foreign influencers to promote the tourist destinations in Romania. The city break and festival tourism segments will be targeted.

"We carried out a market study in order to be able to estimate the size of the public procurement and draft a budget," he said, according to Economica.net.

Cadariu disclosed that his ministry has a marketing budget of EUR 3 mln - a lot compared to past budgets but too little compared to what is needed, in his words.

The minister also said that he wants to reopen Romania.travel portal, which was closed after the institution did not pay a small fee of EUR 100 during the former minister's term.

Cadariu announced that 2.4 million tourists were registered in the local accommodation premises in the first 4 months of the year - of which 84% were Romanian and the rest were foreign tourists. In 2019, before the pandemic, the number of foreign tourists was 2.7 million.

"I hope to reach at least 1.2 million foreign tourists [this year]," Daniel Cadariu added.

andrei@romania-insider.com

(Photo source: Inquam Photos/Costin Dinca)