RICH NEIGHBOR, WELCOME GUEST
Data from Romania's National Institute of Statistics, released earlier this year showed that foreign visitor numbers grew by 4.3 percent over 2012, to reach 7,936,700. Moving forward, the specialists of Business Monitor International, the provider of a comprehensive analysis on Romanian tourism expect this trend towards growth to continue. As also highlighted by BMI, tourism in Romania is mostly dependent on rising incomes across the wider Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) region and, within several years, the annual inbound arrivals are estimated to get near 10 million. Countries within Europe will continue to make up majority of Romania's source market, particularly its regional neighbors in the CEE area - such as Hungary, Moldova, Bulgaria and Ukraine - which form the four most important markets for inbound travel. Travel from these countries is facilitated by good air and rail transport links, though long-haul travel would benefit from further expansion.
Besides the anticipated inbound increase, BMI also expects outbound travel from Romania to show slow but steady growth throughout the forecast period, to reach close to 15 million in 2017, up from 13.8 million in 2013. This growth is based on the gradual improvements expected in the Romanian domestic economy, as more people have disposable income for travel.
Considering the hopeful anticipated trends, the hotelier industry will naturally mark a growth, with several hotels marking their entrance on the market. The CEE zone is a promising land for hotelier investments coming from large hotel groups and individual investors. Advantages of Romania’s underdeveloped shoreline and the decreasing prices for real estate are some of the reasons to sustain the expectations. A selection of this reasons have been selected below:
Hilton, Marriot, Accor and Starwood are all developing new properties at a range of locations, reflecting wider growth in the Romanian hotel market. Two years ago, National Institute of statistics counted 1.319 hotels in Romania, 73 up compared with 2010. In 2011, the number of hotels in Romania increased 8 percent compared with 2010 and 14 percent compared with 2009. Until 2008, the growth rate on this segment reached an average of 4 percent. By 2017, BMI expects the number of hotels in Romania to reach over 1,490, up from 1,380 in 2012.
Outbound air traffic also looks set for good growth over our forecast period to 2017, rising from 4.13mn passengers in 2013, to 4.56mn in 2017. KKey events in Romania in 2013 include the Transylvania International film festival, Bucharest Music Festival, Enescu Festival, and various other cultural events. The country also hosted the European Youth olympics early in 2013
In the case of inns and small hotels, the trend was reversed compared with the evolution on hotels market. In 2009, the number of hospitality units registered as pensions increased 7 percent compared with 2008, but, after the economic turmoil hit stronger, the growth rate diminished to 1 percent in 2010 and even decreased by 2 percent in 2011.
Against the growing trends in numbers, the occupancy rates of either hotels or smaller hospitality units do not post encouraging figures. For instance, in 2007, the hotels reached a maximum of 42 percent according to Eurostat. The report states that this rate decreased to 29 percent in 2010 and slightly increased in 2011. In the case of pensions and similar hospitality facilities, the occupancy rates states at a half, with a maximum of 22 percent registered in 2007 and 2008. In 2010, the occupancy rates for pensions were only of 15 percent.
A NICHE WORTH INVESTIGATING
The beauty of economy is that industries interconnect and influence one another. So it is the case of medical services in Romania that offer much cheaper solutions compared with other countries, so far. Until this will change, Romanian tourism can find in medical tourism a welcoming money resource and growth engine. However, for this to maintain as trend, Romania needs also a coherent reform for improving the infrastructure and promotion of these health and wellness services. And the niche of medical tourism comes not only from foreign visitors as for Romanians living abroad and seeking to receive medical services less expensive as compared to Us or western Union.
