Romanians have already spent EUR 1.2 billion on travels abroad in the first four months of this year, a 20% increase over the same period of the previous year, according to the latest data from the National Bank of Romania (BNR) quoted by Ziarul Financiar.

For comparison, foreigners spent EUR 668 million in January-April this year in Romania, compared with EUR 630 million in the same period of the previous year, an increase of only 6%. The balance of trade with travel services thus showed a deficit of EUR 548 million, 41% higher than last year. In 2018, the deficit from tourism services for the whole year was EUR 1.2 billion.

More and more Romanians spend their holidays abroad, which is also visible in the traffic growth on the Henri Coanda Airport (Otopeni), which could reach 15 million passengers this year compared to 13.8 million passengers last year.

The largest airlines, Wizz Air, Blue Air, and Tarom, predicted that their passenger traffic would increase this year. The low-cost Wizz Air alone, the leader of the airline, has put for sale 9.5 million seats on the local market this year, compared to 8.3 million last year.

editor@romania-insider.com

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