Romanian holiday expenditure outbids other EE budgets
Romanians are spending more than 100 Euros a day on vacations in Austria, it has been revealed.Austria’s national tourism office in Bucharest announced today (Fri) that holidaymakers from the country were spending an average 129 Euros a day during holidays in Austria in the winter. The average daily expenditure of Romanian holidaymakers in Austria in summer was just 103 Euros, it added.The office stressed that these figures put Romanians ahead of tourists from Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary and other countries in Eastern Europe (EE).Figures also show that the number of Romanian tourists coming to Austria declined by 4.4 per cent year on year to 261,000 in 2010. They spent an average 3.1 days in Austria and made an overall 820,000 overnight stays last year.A spokeswoman for the Austrian national tourism office in the Romanian capital, which opened in 2009, told the Romanian Times newspaper: “Considering the difficult economic situation, I am relieved to see we have managed to keep the decrease under control.”She added that RomaniansÂ’ favourite summer holiday destinations in Austria are Vienna, Salzburg and Zell am See. The federal capital was also found the favoured location for holidays in winter ahead of the skiing resorts of Kaprun and Sölden.News that Romanians are spending nearly 130 Euros on average during holidays in Austria comes after a travel and shopping service agency said foreign tourists spent almost 30 per cent more in shops in the country in 2010 than they did during the year before.Global Blue Austria said holidaymakers from abroad spent approximately 250 million Euros in stores across Austria last year, up by 27 per cent year on year. It added that around 60 per cent of the overall turnover generated by foreign holidaymakers’ purchases was generated by stores in Vienna.Russians spent the most among tourists from non-European Union (EU) countries with 83 million Euros, followed by Chinese travellers, who spent 44 million Euros.Austria recorded 124.82 million overnight stays in 2010. State agency Statistik Austria said this was a 0.4 per cent year on year improvement.